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JOSEPH GALES, JUNIOR, EDITOR AND MAYOR. 



[Reprinted from The Records of The Columbia Historical Society, 
Vol. 23, 1920.] 



JOSEPH GALES, JUNIOR, EDITOR AND 
MAYOR. 

By ALLEN C. CLARK. 

(Read before the Society, October 21. 1919.) 

"That prince of editors, the accomplished Joseph 
Gales," said Robert C. Winthrop. Mr. Gales was 
preeminent as an editor. But that he was a Mayor of 
the Corporation of Washington gives him a distinction 
worthy of a biography. It will be the policy of this 
paper to let those who have spoken say it over again. 
The policy will account for the abounding quotation. 
The writer recognizes that his paraphrasing and elabor- 
ation would mar beauty and brevity — to illustrate 
from Dean Swift: 

"In Pope I cannot read a line, 
But with a sigh I wish it mine; 
When he can in one couplet fix 
More sense than I can do in six." 

And the warning of the praised Pope I shall heed, 
not to write that which must be understood, 

"Plutarch, that writes his life, 
Tells us that Cato dearly loved his wife." 

The Gales ancestors live at Sheffield, England. At 
Sheffield brittania ware and silver plating were invented. 
It is renowned for its cutlery and all manner of steel 
instruments and implements. The writer thinks more 
of Sheffield through Dickens' pathetic fiction — " Brooks 
of Sheffield." Mr. Murdstone was matrimonially plot- 
ting for "the pretty widow — the bewitching Mrs. 
Copperfield." Mr. M. to his companion, Mr. Quinion, 
spoke of the widow's incumbrance, Davy, "Only 

86 



&A. 






1 f 



Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXII!, Pl. Ill 




Joseph Gales. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 87 

Brooks of Sheffield. 1 " And Mr. Q. gave the sharp shaver 
a little sherry and a biscuit and stood him up and had 
him deliver the toast "Confusion to Brooks of Sheffield. " 
The gentlemen laughed so heartily, the butt laughed too; 
then the gentlemen more heartily. 

Mr. Gales' ancestry has been given a definite start. 
The acorn was his great-great grandfather, Richard. 
He guided in the path of learning the youth of Ecking- 
ton, a village near to Sheffield. His son Timothy was 
the Parish Clerk. He married Miss Clay. Mr. Gales 
commented on the resemblance between Henry Clay 
of Kentucky and his own relatives, the Clays in Eng- 
land. Timothy Gales when eighty-three, attempted 
to cross a stream over a fallen tree, tumbled in and was 
drowned. This event changed in the course of time 
its melancholic coloring to a pleasing reminiscent shade. 
Mr. Seaton from Sheffield, September 16, 1855, to 
Mrs. Seaton writes: "I passed the little stream in 
which the catastrophe happened to your aged great- 
grandfather, and in which your brother Joseph has 
often cast his pinhook, and fancied that I walked the 
old and well-worn path by which your father and 
mother used to take their afternoon stroll to Eckington." 
The next generation was the grandfather, Thomas. 
He to his son, Joseph, left the memory of his virtues 
and nothing taxable, which has more elegantly been 
written "no patrimony save the indiscerptible one of 
probity, industry and a good capacity." 

Joseph Gales, Senior, was born in Eckington, 1761. 
He was apprenticed in the printing and bookbinding 
trade. Apprenticeships of that period were often of 
severest servitude. The continuation of cruelties con- 
cluded when the master's wife tried to impale him with 
a knife. He attached himself to another master in 
the same craft and with better luck. The apprentice 
had the "passports to feminine favor" it is said, yet it 



88 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

took five years of wooing to win the master's daughter, 
Winifred Marshall. 

Mrs. Winifred Gales was a remarkable woman. 
She could raise the family and take care of the business 
and have time for other employment. She was quick 
to perceive and alert to act. Her life as told in her 
autobiography has plenty of action and sufficient 
event to make several thrillers in the present-day 
picture dramas. 1 With facility she could write in plain 
style or poetic style. She gathered more than slight 
fame with her sentimental pictures and that Lady 
Julia Seaton had a prophetic turn. In the autobiography 
she has: "Your grandfather Marshall's family, my dear 
children, were proud of their lineage, and though their 
claim to distinction on the score of wealth had passed 
away before my time, yet they were tenacious of their 
pretentions and loved to dwell upon the family descent. 
Genealogical trees, seals, parchments setting forth 
hereditary claims, were jealously cherished possessions, 
exciting my youthful interest; now, in this land where 
honorable conduct is the only patent of true nobility, 
such distinctions seem puerile; yet a degree of tender- 
ness pervades my feelings at this retrospective view, 
and I am pleased to remember that my ancestors were 
persons of integrity, well-educated, and of no mean 
intellect." 

Mr. Gales established at Sheffield the printing and 
publishing business and subsequently the book business. 
The first publication was the bible with annotations 
by Mrs. Gales. In 1787, he started The Sheffield Register. 
It was a weekly miscellany with editorial views expressed 
in moderation. 

In 1792 came political agitation. The people called 
for reform and rights which the rulers called rebellion 

1 Unpublished Title: "Reminiscences which relate to Persons who 
came under my own observations." 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 89 

and revolution. Mr. Gales through the Register espoused 
the popular cause. 

Sheffield was the scene of severest struggle. Moncure 
D. Conway has vividly written the history under the 
title "Sheffield— A Battle Field of Labor" (Harper's 
Magazine, Vol. 36). Thomas Paine, having had his 
part in the preliminaries of war between Great Britain 
and its American colonies, hastened to England to 
have his part in these internal disruptions. Paine 
proved to be the firebrand which, igniting the combus- 
tible elements of the opposing parties, caused an explo- 
sion involving the ruin of many eminent men, and 
tending directly also to a crisis in the fortunes of Mr. 
Gales. 

Booksellers were fined and imprisoned for selling 
Paine's works. To an American Mr. Gales owed his 
escape from similar severity. Thomas Digges, of the 
ancestry of Dr. James Dudley Morgan of the Columbia 
Historical Society, was the American. While Mr. 
Gales was in London Mr. Digges asked Mrs. Gales 
if they had any of Paine's works. "Yes, a great many." 
He replied "Let me then as a friend entreat you to 
put them carefully aside, and if inquired for, to deny 
possession of a single copy. I have indisputable au- 
thority for saying, that to disregard my advice would 
be productive of positive danger." Says Mrs. Gales, 
"We . . . now acted gratefully on the friendly warning 
of Mr. Digges, whom we next met twenty years after- 
wards, on the banks of the Potomac." 

A letter dated "Gales's printing-office" indited by 
an indiscreet printer, Dick Davison, of the establish- 
ment during Mr. Gales absence, fell to the attention of 
the government. 

A return to Sheffield spelled for Mr. Gales imprison- 
ment. His friends — by Mr. Montgomery — urged him 
to put the German Ocean between himself and prose- 
cution. He did. 



90 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

In this time of turmoil came to Mr. Gales in answer 
to an advertisement for a clerk, a prepossessing youth 
who progressively matured into his assistant editor, 
dearest friend and finally successor to his journal. 

Montgomery was the son of a Moravian minister. 
He had defective vision. It had the effect of depriving 
him of mixing in the boys ' sport — of seeing less without 
or more within himself. 

The birth of his Muse he, himself, gives, 1794; "At 
school, even, where I was driven like a coal-ass through 
the Latin and Greek grammars, I was distinguished 
for nothing but indolence and melancholy, brought 
upon me by a raging and lingering fever, with which 
I was suddenly seized one fine summer day as I lay 
under a hedge with my companions, listening to our 
master while he read us some animated passages from 
Blair's poem on the Man. My happier school fellows, 
born under milder planets, all fell asleep during the 
rehearsal; but I, who was always asleep when I ought 
to be waking, never dreamed of closing an eye, but 
eagerly caught the contagious malady; and from that 
ecstatic moment to the present, Heaven knows, I never 
enjoyed one cheerful, one peaceful day." 

Although Montgomery's spirits were habitually in a 
low key — yet for the ages his hymns, upon which his 
fame is more built, will encourage and his patriotic 
poems inspire. 

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire 
Uttered or unexpressed." 

"There is a land, of every land the pride, 
Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside, 
When lighter suns disperse serener light, 
And milder moons imparadise the night; 

That land thy country, and that spot thy home!" 

Montgomery in his twenty-eighth year wrote "Wan- 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 91 

derer in Switzerland" which had call promptly for three 
editions. However, that cynical critic, Jeffreys, in 
the Edinburgh Review, conceived the author to be 
"some slender youth of seventeen, intoxicated with 
weak tea." 

The proprietorship of the Register was changed to 
Mr. Montgomery. With the change the new owner 
gave the journal a new name, The Iris. The title, 
signifying messenger, may have had suggestion from 
Shakspeare's "Queen Margaret to Suffolk": 

"For wheresoe'er thou art in this world's globe, 
I'll have an 7ns that shall find thee out." 

Mr. Montgomery wrote a song in commemoration of 
the fall of the Bastile, for which he was fined and im- 
prisoned; and for a report of a riot in Sheffield he again 
became an inmate of York Castle. In prison he wrote 
the "Pleasures of Imprisonment." 

Sir Walter Scott rhymingly wrote to Montgomery: 

"Sheffield with all its works of smoke and fire, 
Has nought produced superior to thy lyre." 

Mr. Montgomery lived with Mr. Gales' three maiden 
daughters. For Elizabeth, the eldest, he had the 
emotion which makes the vital current run swift. 
At her death, he made tribute to her virtues in a poem. 

"She went as calmly as at eve 
A cloud in sunset melts away." 

Joseph Gales, Jr., was born at Eckington, April 10, 
1786, and his sister, Sarah, at Sheffield, May 12, 1789. 
Joseph was eight years of age when his parents took 
refuge in Altona, near Hamburg, in the district Hol- 
stein. Joseph's second sister had the geographic desig- 
nation — Altona Holstein. 2 In the German place of 
sojourn, the Gales met Joel Barlow, famous as patriot 

2 The Intelligencer, January 6, 1814, announces marriage of Altona 
Holstein Gales to Rev. Anthony Forster, of S. C. 



92 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

and poet, and of poetry, more for his humorous " Hasty- 
Pudding" than for his grand "Columbiad." 

"Dear Hasty-Pudding, what unpromis'd joy 
Expands my heart, to meet thee in Savoy ! 
Doom'd o'er the world thro' devious paths to roam, 
Each clime my country, and each house my home, 
My soul is sooth'd my cares have found an end, 
I greet my long-lost, unforgotten friend." 

Written at Chambray, in Savoy, January, 1793. 

The Gales embarked for Philadelphia and there 
disembarked, July 30, 1795 ; the passage was sixty days. 
Within four hundred miles of the Delaware capes the 
vessel was boarded by a privateer. The capture 
impending, the passengers assigned themselves nation- 
alities. The Gales decided to be Americans returning 
from Hamburg. A lieutenant, a prize master, was 
left in charge. The lieutenant recognized the deceit. 
"An American family from Hamburg, Madam? Your 
husband may be an American but surely you are an 
Englishwoman and these children were born on British 
soil" — patting the heads of Joseph and Sarah. Then 
the prize master came up saying: "You are a York- 
shire woman, too, madam, and blessed is the sound of 
your voice, for it is thirteen years since I have heard 
my native dialect." 

By Mrs. Gales' diplomacy, the prize was released 
by the privateer. Said the privateer's captain: "To 
you alone, madam, it is relinquished." 3 

Mrs. Gales' autobiography, of course, carried more 
or less of Mr. Gales. After the decease of Mrs. Gales, 
he in 1835, amplified her work so as to include what it 
omitted about himself. The autobiography and its 
additions are unpublished. Miss Josephine Seaton in 
the biography of her father, William Winston Seaton, 
has freely extracted from Mrs. Gales, and here, in turn, 

3 A letter from Gales to Montgomery has date and address: August 23, 
1795, No. 272 North Front St., Philadelphia, Pa. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 93 

is freely extracted from Miss Seaton's most meritorious 
volume. 

In Philadelphia, the Gales reunited the intimacy with 
Dr. Joseph Priestly. The Doctor — because of his liberal 
religious, and especially his pronounced republican 
ideas — found it convenient to escape to the land religious- 
tolerant and people-governed. And by the English 
contingent was organized a Unitarian church, June 12, 
1796, in the University Building on south Fourth 
Street. Dr. Priestly's forms of prayer were adopted 
and Mr. Gales was the first reader. 

From Mr. Gales autobiographic additions it appears 
as now briefed. A travelling man appeared at his 
bookstore in Sheffield and showed him specimens of 
stenography in a book and offered to teach it to him. 
He took lessons until advised he was proficient. Dunlap 
and Claypoole, the proprietors of the American Daily 
Advertiser, employed him as a compositor. Then as a 
bookkeeper. Callender, the reporter of the Congres- 
sional proceedings, because of his blunders, was dis- 
charged. Mr. Claypoole inquired of Mr. Gales if he 
had any knowledge of shorthand and upon the relation of 
his experience as stated, was impressed into the vacant 
position. The lack of important business at first 
and the seizure of leisure moments for practice had 
the result of satisfactory service. 4 

Mr. Gales bought of the widow of Colonel John 
Oswald, The Independent Gazeteer or The Chronicle 
of Freedom. He sold it to Samuel Harrison Smith, 
November 16, 1797, and announced that he "will be 
glad to receive the commands of his friends in the Print- 
ing business at his office back of No. 126 North Second 
Street, or at his home, No. 36 Race Street." Mr. 
Smith, who changed the title to The Universal Gazette, 
claimed "His list contains more subscribers than he 

4 The Washington Post, March 22, 1903. 



94 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

believes at present patronize any other paper in the 
United States." 

The annual recurrence of the yellow fever, or the 
persuasion of Influential politicians of North Carolina, 
or both, caused Mr. Gales to locate September, 1799, 
at the State Capital and to be the proprietor of the 
Raleigh Register and North Carolina Gazette. 

Young Gales supplemented the elementary lessons 
taught by his mother, in the schools of Raleigh. At- 
tended the University of North Carolina. He was 
diligent, in study, quick to learn, hilarious in play 
and slow in resentment. He was given to inventing 
devices especially of the electrical order and with his 
genius did astonish the natives of Raleigh. He did 
not attend the singing schools but he did the theatrical 
rehearsals with the other stage-struck youth of the 
sun-smiling South. It is likely on the candied-stage 
he had seen the American actors Warren and Wood 
and aspired to become a well-graced actor and in the 
theatre hold the admiring eyes. 

Young Gales perfected himself in the arts in which 
his father was proficient — printing and stenography. 
At this time the father's plant at Raleigh was burned 
while yet the State printing was uncompleted. Young 
Gales hastened to Warrenton to Richard Davison, 
now successfully the proprietor of a printing-office 
and of a newspaper. The same Davison who in his 
flighty youth was the marplot of the Gales' place 
and prospects, was now the rescuing-bero, the johnny- 
on-the-spot, to save the Gales in a distressing emergency. 
He unhesitatingly lent his type and presses and young 
Gales himself quickly utilized them to publish the edition 
of new statutes. Young Gales added to training as a 
workman with Bird and Small, in Philadelphia. 

The first newspaper, the English Mer curie, " published 
by authoritie, for the prevention of false reports" 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 95 

and "imprinted at London, by Christopher Barker, 
her highnesses printer" is dated 1588. Her highness 
was Queen Elizabeth. The first regular newspaper 
was the Public Intelligencer, originated August 31, 1661 
(then called a diurnal). 

This historic fact probably suggested the title of the 
new paper launched coincident with the government 
at the city of Washington. 

In the Centinel of Liberty, or George-Town and Wash- 
ington Advertiser, October 14, 1800, is the announcement: 
" Will be Published in a short time — By Samuel Harrison 
Smith — At the City of Washington, — a Newspaper 
conducted on national — principles — To be Entitled — 
The National Intelligencer, & Washington Advertiser." 

The first issue was October 31, 1800. The publishing 
office was in the "Ten Buildings," at the northwest 
intersection of New Jersey Avenue and D Street South- 
east. In it was also the home of the proprietor. The 
building is in the center of the row. It has a modernized 
front. The publisher's place of business and residence 
in a year was moved to Pennsylvania Avenue. The 
site is that where is building numbered 622 (and 623 
Missouri Avenue). 

The paper was a tri-weekly. 

Mr. Smith continued the publication of the Universal 
Gazette as a weekly. The publication was discontinued 
on or about April 17, 1811. 

Mr. Gales, senior, with Mr. Gales, junior, came 1807 
to Washington to offer the son's services to Mr. Smith. 
The services were accepted. Within two years, 1809, 
the proprietor in recognition of the material help of his 
assistant took him into joint proprietorship. And 
within a year from the creation of the joint affair, 
August 31, 1810, 5 the senior proprietor relinquished to 
the junior, the sole proprietorship. 

5 At the same time Mr. Smith sold to Mr. Gales the Universal Gazette. 



96 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

"National Intelligencer, 

Washington Advertiser. 

August 31, 1810. 
"In entering on the discharge of duties in many respects 
arduous and delicate, I am too sensible of the insufficiency of 
professions to expect that they will have much weight on the 
public; and even if they had, I trust too much self-respect to 
commit myself by any derogatory promises. It is the dearest 
right, and ought to be cherished as the proudest prerogative 
of a freeman, to be guided exclusively by the unbiassed con- 
victions of his own judgment. This right it is my firm purpose 
to maintain, and to preserve inviolate the independence of 
the print now committed into my hands. 

"Joseph Gales, Jun." 
"August 31, 1810." 

William Winston Seaton was born one year and three 
months in advance of Mr. Gales. He on the amateur 
stage with Gales essayed the roles of comedy and 
tragedy. He had had great journalistic experience. 
He made the propitious connection with the Raleigh 
Register. Then the happy union with the proprietor's 
daughter. He and Sarah Gales were married in 1809. 

In the National Intelligencer, October 8, 1812, the 
announcement : 

"The editor of this paper, finding its extensive concerns 
too multifarious for the superintendence of any individual 
though possessed of more industry and assiduity than he 
can lay claim to, has taken into connection with him in business 
Mr. William W. Seaton, late joint-conductor (with Mr. 
Joseph Gales, Senior) of the Raleigh Register. This arrange- 
ment, whilst it will leave the editor at liberty to devote more 
particular attention to the Congressional Reports and Editorial 
Department of the paper, will, he hopes, ensure greater cor- 
rectness and better typographical execution than heretofore. 
His best exertions, at least, with the aid of the superior pro- 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 97 

fessional abilities of his partner, will not be wanting to merit 
a continuance of the liberal patronage with which this estab- 
lishment has been honored by the Public before and since it 
has been under the conduct of its present proprietor." 

There is in the union between Joseph Gales, Junior, 
and William W. Seaton a parallel to that between 
(Francis) Beaumont and (John) Fletcher. These play- 
authors had "a community of goods as well as thoughts" 
and between them in the antiquary's (John Aubrey) 
words was a "wonderful consimilty of phansy," a 
"dearness of friendship." . . . They lived together on 
the Banke side, not far from the playhouse and "had 
the same clothes and cloak." 6 

Charles Lanman, exactly forty-eight years after 
the announcement of association, i.e., October, 1860, 
wrote : 

"From this period, of course, their stories, like their lives, 
became united, and merge, with a rare concord, into one. 
They have had no bickerings, no misunderstanding, no dif- 
ference of view which a consultation did not at once reconcile ; 
they have never known a division of interests; from their 
common coffer each has always drawn whatever he chose; 
and, down to this day, there has never been a settlement be- 
tween them. What facts could better attest not merely a 
singular harmony of character, but an admirable conformity 
of virtues?" 

The National Intelligencer, January 1, 1813, became 
the Daily National Intelligencer. 

Mrs. Seaton, January 2, 1813, w T rites: 

"The issue of the Daily Paper gives us now every evening 
the duties of Proof Night, but Joseph and William divide 
their labors and cheerfully put their shoulders to the wheel 
which makes everything smooth and agreeable. The Presi- 
dent admires it, and indeed every one who has seen it, with 
this remark. ' But I am afraid it cannot be supported in such 

6 E. P. Whipple. 



98 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

handsome style.' However, William and Joseph are both 
sanguine as to its success, and anticipate as many as five 
hundred subscribers before the conclusion of the year." 

Of the side issues of the Intelligencer is no complete 
file. For many years were published semi-weekly and 
tri-weely editions. A weekly edition started with 
June 5, 1841. 

Young Gales was of the gay. Of dancing assemblies 
and birth-night balls he had the direction. His sister 
says, October 12, 1812; Joseph attended Mrs. Madison's 
drawing room in fine style sporting three cravats! 

Sarah Juliana Maria Lee and Joseph Gales were 
married December 14, 1813, at Woodville, near Win- 
chester, Virginia. Miss Lee was the daughter of Theo- 
dorick Lee, the brother of Henry Lee, " Light Horse 
Harry," the father of Robert E. Lee. The ceremony was 
solemnized by the Rev. Alexander Bailmain. The same 
divine performed the same office for James Madison and 
Dolly P. Todd in the same vicinity. Although Mr. 
Gales had the four pages of a newspaper to chronicle 
the event and give detail, important at least, to the 
feminine part of the city, he only appropriated sufficient 
space for the barest announcement. 

Close to the time of his marriage, Mr. Gales bought 
the Crocker mansion, northwest corner of Ninth and 
E Streets. About the same time he bought the town 
residence, he acquired a country seat. The original 
acquirement was several times added to until the 
greatest number of acres was one hundred and twelve. 
It was of the tract of Notley Young; on the west was 
the road from the Capitol to Rock Creek. The old 
Bladensburg road ran through it. Boundary Street 
was the southern front. On this front was the ruin of 
a mill race. This mill likely gave the name "Mill 
Tract." The choice of location was influenced, by 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 99 

the proximity to Sydney — Mr. Smith's country seat — 
where he was a frequent guest. 

The National Intelligencer advocated the Republican 
policies of Jefferson and Madison. It censured Great 
Britain for trespassing upon American rights. Although 
Gales was English born and Seaton of Scottish descent, 
both were thoroughly American. At the first alarm 
both enrolled as privates in a volunteer company. 
At Fort Warburton, now Fort Washington, under 
Captain John Davidson they encamped. And with 
the gallant Captain at times ventured valiantly in 
search of the enemy. 

Under date, July 22, 1813, Mrs. Seaton writes: 

"William came from the camp yesterday, and after arrang- 
ing the paper will return by daylight. He and Joseph will 
now come alternately during the time it may be thought 
necessary that the troops should remain on duty. Their 
friends think it out of reason that the paper should be neglected 
and are of opinion that the paper and continual direction of 
the public record printed in their office is of infinitely more 
importance than individual exertion they could possibly make 
in the camp; but this arrangement of one staying and one 
going would be very unpleasant, and they appear more dis- 
posed to encounter danger, or rather exertion together than 
separate. Joseph would more naturally incur the imputation 
of disinclination to defend his country from enemies than 
William, from the accident of being a foreigner, and therefore 
I should like him to prove the contrary, if he has indeed a 
political enemy who would be so ungenerous as to asperse his 
actions and motions. . . . There were only two pressman 
left in the office, and one of them ill this evening, so that 
the paper will be published with great difficulty." 

Mr. Gales was absent from the city, August 24, 1814. 
He had taken Mrs. Seaton and Mrs. Gales to Raleigh 
for safety. Mr. Seaton was at the editorial post in 
the morning. The sound of firing warned him the 
British were advancing on the Capital. He dismissed 



ioo Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

the employes — who were excused from military service 
by the Secretary of War to keep the paper going — 
to join their respective companies, and he joined his 
on Eastern Branch and with it marched to Bladensburg. 

When Admiral Cockburn August 25, was about 
to burn the Intelligencer office, Mrs. Brush, Mrs. Stelle 
and other women of the neighborhood remonstrated 
with him, insisting that it would cause the loss of all 
the buildings in the row. Said he: "Well, good people 
I do not wish to injure you, but I really am afraid 
my friend Josey will be affronted with me, if after 
burning Jemmy's palace, I do not pay him the same 
compliment, — so my lads, take your axes, pull down 
the house and burn the papers in the street." He 
did not fire the building but had the library of several 
hundred volumes piled on the banks of the canal (that 
is at the rear of the building) and burned. He destroyed 
the type, presses and other printing paraphernalia. 
He assured Mrs. Brush and others only houses deserted 
should be injured. Mrs. Cutting and Mrs. B. saved 
the home of Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, who had 
fled, by opening the windows. The housekeeper of 
Mr. Gales saved his residence from the fate of the 
office by the sharp trick of closing the shutters and 
chalking on the front door "For Rent." 7 

Mrs. Smith says : 

"Cockburn often rode down the avenue, on an old white 
mare with a long mane and tail and followed by its foal to 
the dismay of the spectators. He, and all his soldiers were 
perfectly polite to the citizens. He stop'd at a door, at 
which a young lady was standing and enter'd into familiar 
conversation. 'Now did you expect me such a clever fellow; 
were you not prepared to see a savage, a furious creature, 
such as Josey represented me? But you see I am quite 
harmless, dont be afraid, I will take better care of you than 

7 From accounts of Mrs. Seaton, Mrs. Samuel H. Smith and Dr. Samuel 
C. Busey. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 101 

Jemmy did!' Such was his manner, — that of a common 
sailor, — not a dignified commander." 

September 5, 1814: 

"The Editors of the National Intelligencer in consequence 
of informations already received from several patriotic 
citizens, of a disposition to make up the loss sustained in the 
destruction of their office by Donations, take this method of 
stating, in order to save their friends some trouble on this 
score, that they cannot accept of assistance of this description. 
Relying on the support of a just People, they hope to replace 
their losses by the labor of their own hands, without accepting 
of that gratuitous and so generously proffered, of which, 
unfortunately, but too many of their fellow-citizens have 
much greater need than they." 

Mr. Gales had his city residence until August 15, 
1829. His parents lived on the east side of Seventh 
between E and F Streets in 1834. 

Mr. Gales had strong interest in local politics as well 
as national. He was not over proud to invite the 
suffrages of his party adherents. He was an alderman 
in the time of the war; two years from June, 1814. 
The second year he was the President of the Council. 

Mr. Gales was elected Mayor, July 21, 1827, by the 
Council to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of 
Mr. Weightman. For Mayor for the ensuing two 
years, from June 3, 1828, Mr. Gales received all the 
votes except tw r elve or fifteen scattering. 

Of the Gales administration there is little to relate. 
The writer recalls only two mayoral proclamations — 
the offer of a reward for the apprehension of a criminal — 
and the warning against the larceny of another's dog. 

The public schools in the eastern and western section 
of the city were independently governed. Hugh Mc- 
Cormick was the principal of the Eastern Free School. 
The teacher of the first western school, S.E. corner of 
Twelfth and G streets, Henry Ould, in his report, 



102 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

published for the satisfaction of the citizens, contrary 
to the advanced ideas of the present, held to the sacred- 
ness of the schools for educational use and no other, 
and gave his approbation to trustees' action to that 
effect, July 14, 1826. 

11 Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Meeting, the con- 
struction of the contemplated Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is 
an object of the highest importance to the future interests 
and prosperity of this City; and that all the energies and 
resources of the Corporation ought to be zealously and without 
delay brought into action and applied towards effecting the 
object." 

The meeting was held in the City Hall, July 10, 1827. 
Mr. Gales was the Secretary. 

By public meetings, by banquets with ovations and 
toasts; by editorials in the Intelligencer and in its series 
of educational articles the project w T as promoted. 
Mr. Gales was the Chairman of the Committee of Ar- 
rangements at the ceremony of breaking ground, 
July 4, 1828. 

The Corporation made a subscription of one million 
dollars to the stock. At this time the Corporation was 
deep in debt because of the lottery losses. Nothing 
could chill, however, the optimism of Mr. Gales and 
his fellow citizens. They thought probably that He, 
who "providently caters for the sparrow" might mira- 
culously cause a fall, only financially, like the manna 
for the children of Israel in the wanderings in the 
wilderness. And it came about just about that way. 
The Coropration passed an act September 20, 1828, 
providing for the raising of a sufficient sum to pay the 
whole amount. Mr. Gales appointed Richard Rush, 
agent. The appointment was called "excellent and 
judicious." The next year, the Intelligencer exultingly 
announced: "Richard Rush has negotiated a loan in 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 103 

Holland." The Dutch through Messrs. Crommelin, 
at Amsterdam, bought the five per cent stock at ninety 
one and a half. Not many years after (1836) Congress to 
offset its unequal support of the National Capital, 
paid the loan. 

And there are always fleas to bite us. In this mun- 
dane existence if it isn't one trouble it is another to 
afflict us. Even to cross the thoroughfare is to en- 
counter peril. Having safely avoided the meteoric 
auto the pedestrian finds himself upon his feet and 
lifts his surprised eyes in gratitude to heaven. It 
was another danger in Gales' mayoralty: 

"Friends Gales and Seaton: Some of your fellow citizens 
wish to be informed whether there has ever been a law passed 
by our Corporation to prohibit playing bandy in the streets? 
If no such law is in existence, the subject ought to claim the 
attention of Council; our eyes and limbs are frequently en- 
dangered by this practice, and ladies are compelled to change 
their course or encounter the risk of being knocked down by 
the parties contending for the bandy-ball. 

" Ephraim Steady." 

" November 2, 1827. 

The progress of the city can be taken as impartially 
stated by the Editor of the Trenton True American. 

"The city is improving, buildings are rapidly erecting, and 
business, although not so brisk as when Congress are in session, 
is still active. The face of things around the metropolis is 
picturesque and delightful; nature now wears her greenest 
livery, and is tinted with a thousand beautiful images; in 
the circumference which the eye embraces. There is no 
parsimony in the scene, but all is rich, diversified, and inter- 
esting. Such a city as this is about to become, situated in 
the bosom of so many natural and artificial beauties, did 
Washington, with prophetic eye behold, when his discrimin- 
ating judgment saluted it as the seat of the future legislation, 
as the embryo metropolis of a mighty empire, which, knowing 



104 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

no boundaries but the billows of the two great oceans raging 
through revolving centuries of time, will find its termination 
only in eternity." 

To the present time human character has not changed 
from the first example of it by the first man, when, 
cowardly, he tried to shift the blame to "the woman 
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the 
tree." The overwhelming majority of mankind make 
obeisance to wealth as it always has. It is only those 
minds of higher order that can make estimate of talent 
and wealth in true order. Jean de La Bruyere (1645- 
1696) in "Les caracteres" says: "As riches and favours 
forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody 
could find it out in his prosperity." No more in the 
period of the French moralist than in the slight segment 
of time — our erudite editor's mayoralty — is true the 
human characteristic in discussion. In the editor's 
paper and in the mayor's term is this: 

"When fortune smiles and looks serene, 

'Tis 'Pray, Sir, how d'ye do, 
Your family are well I hope, 

Can I serve them or you? ' 
But if perchance, her scale should turn, 

And with it change your plight, 
'Tis then, 'I'm sorry for your fate, 

But times are hard — good night.' " 

The friends of Civil and Religious Liberty in Ireland 
met at the City Hall, October 13, 1828. "A vote of 
thanks was given to Joseph Gales, Jr., Esq., Mayor of 
the City of Washington, for the attention and satis- 
factory manner in which he has presided." 

At the fourteenth anniversary of the Columbia 
Typographical Union, January 3, 1829, to the toast: 
"Joseph Gales, Jr. — the consistent politician — the orna- 
ment of his profession — and the honest man; his liber- 
ality is proverbial," Mr. Gales responded: "He in 
acknowledging the unmerited compliment conveyed by 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 105 

the toast, expressed his pleasure at being able to meet 
so many of the Craft, and to salute them as friends 
and brethren. Initiated at the early age of ten years 
in the mysteries of the art of printing, by his venerated 
father, he had the honor, before he was twenty-one 
years of age, to become a member of the Typographical 
Society of Philadelphia, whose diploma he preserved to 
this day and cherished with as much respect as though 
it were the evidence of ancestral nobility. He was, he 
added, proud of his profession, and always happy to 
find himself present in the liberal and charitable asso- 
ciations of those belonging to it." 

The anniversary was held at the Franklin Inn, north- 
east corner of Eighth and D Streets. James Kennedy 
was the proprietor. 

John Quincy Adams characterized Mrs. Royall "virago 
errant in enchanted armor." 

The correspondent of The Evening Star, January 28, 
1903, describes her thus: Her voice was sharp and 
strident and cut the atmosphere like a knife. 

"She wore thick gray worsted mitts, through which her 
claws protruded, and grasped a green cotton umbrella, a 
bundle of newspapers, a subscription book of The Huntress 
. . . She wore a green calash in summer. ... In winter 
she was bundled up in several shabby, dark shawls, or maybe 
a short cloak, with the hood, closely covering her head. Her 
face was swarthy and rawboned and was traversed by a 
thousand wrinkles." 

Mrs. Royall was not without kindness of heart and 
appreciated all attentions. Disappointment and dis- 
tress beginning with captivity by the Indians, and 
continued by the Government's refusal of repeated 
appeals for pension, gave to her natural disposition, 
a stronger acquired one, to use abusive language. 
Reared in ignorance her husband, a Revolutionary 



106 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

officer, taught her to read and write. And she could 
write and speak with skill — and with vigor and rancor. 

In her " Black Book" in 1829 of Washington says: 
' ' All the difference I perceive in Washington since I 
wrote the 'Sketches' is that the people eat more, drink 
more, dress more, cheat more, lie more, steal more, 
pray more, and preach more, and are more ignorant and 
indigent." Of Georgetown, she says: "How Thomas, 
the bookseller, gets his bread is a mystery in such an 
illiterate place as Georgetown." 

Mrs. Royall lived on Capitol Hill and of her neighbors 
had disrespect if the nicknames she gave them indicated : 
Holy Willy, Young Mucklewrath, Pompey Poplarheard, 
Tom Oystertongs, Sally Smart, Hallelujah Holdfork, 
Miss Dina Dumpling, Miss Riggle, Miss Dismals. 

The Rev. Reuben Post, pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church, and John Coyle and his family were so 
outrageously vilified they appealed for protection to 
the law. The grand jury, June, 1829, indicted her as a 
common scold. It is the only indictment of that nature. 
In full it is : 

"County of Washington — The jurors for the county afore- 
said upon their oath, present that Anne Royall, late of this 
county, widow, being an evil-disposed person and a common 
slanderer and disturber of the peace and happiness of her 
quiet and honest neighbors, on the 1st of June, A.D. 1829, 
and on divers days and times, as well before as afterward, 
was, and yet is a common slanderer of the good people of 
the neighborhood in which the said Anne resides, and that 
the said Anne Royall on the 1st day of June and on divers 
other days and times in the open and public streets of the 
city of Washington, in the presence and hearing of divers 
good citizens, did falsely and maliciously slander and abuse 
divers good citizens of the United States residing in the city 
aforesaid, to the evil example of all others in like case offending 
and against the peace and government of the United States. 

" Second count — And the jurors upon their oath do further 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 107 

present that the said Anne Royall being an evil-disposed 
person and a common scold and disturber of the peace of her 
honest and quiet neighbors on the 1st day of June, A.D. 1829, 
at the county of Washington and at divers other days and 
times in the public streets of the city of Washington did 
annoy and disturb the good people of the United States 
residing in said county by her open public and common scolding 
to the common nuisance of the good citizens of the United 
States residing there and to the evil example, etc. 

"Third Count — And the jurors do further present, That 
the said Anne Royall, being an evil-disposed person, and a 
common disturber of the peace and happiness of her honest 
and good neighbors, on the 1st day of June, A.D. 1829, and 
on divers other days and times as well before as afterwards, 
was, and yet is, a common broiler and disturber of her quiet 
and honest neighbors, and that the said Anne Royall, on the 
1st day of June afterward and on divers other days and times 
as well before as afterwards, in the open and public streets, 
in the county aforesaid, did annoy and disturb the good people 
of the United States residing in the county aforesaid by her 
open and public brawling and public slanders, to the common 
nuisance of the good citizens of the United States residing in 
the county aforesaid, to the evil example of all others in like 
cases offending and against the peace and Government of the 
United States. 

"Thomas Swann, 

Attorney, U.S." 

Blackstone says: 

"A common scold, communis vixatrix" (for our law Latin 
confines it to the feminine gender) "is a public nuisance in 
her neighborhood. For which offence she may be indicted, 
and if convicted shall be sentenced to be placed in a certain 
engine of correction called the . . . cucking stool, which in 
the Saxon language is said to signify the scolding stool, 
though now it is frequently corrupted into ducking stool, 
because the evidence of the judgment is that when she is so 
placed therein she shall be plunged in the water for her 
punishment." 



108 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

The interesting article in The Washington Post, 
August 19, 1900, from which portions of the information, 
has: 

"There never was a ducking stool in Washington and it is 
doubtful if that instrument was ever known in Georgetown, 
but Alexandria possessed a ducking apparatus, which was in 
the 1780's kept at the office of Judge Mease (once mayor), 
on King Street, near Lee Street not far from the Potomac. 
Its only victim, Termagant Taylor, tested the Potomac 
water soon after the Revolutionary war." 

The demurrer to the first and second counts of the 
indictment was sustained; to the third count the defen- 
dant pleaded not guilty and the trial proceeded. 

The court consisted of Judges Cranch, Thruston 
and Morsell. The defendant has described the Court: 

"Judge C. was formerly described as resembling Judge 
Marshall. This is incorrect owing to my having seen him 
but once before, in the dusk of the evening. He is younger 
than the Chief Justice; has a longer face with a good deal of 
pumpkin in it (though my friend says the pumpkin is his 
head); but let this be as it may; I was always partial to Judge 
Cranch because he was a Yankee and a near relative of my 
friend, Ex-President Adams, whom I shall always remember 
with gratitude." 

"Judge Thruston is about the same age as Judge Cranch 
but harder featured. He is Laughing-proof. He looks as if 
he had sat upon the rack all his life and lived on crab-apples. 
They are both about fifty years of age. The sweet Morsel, 
who seems to sit for his portrait, is the same age. His face 
is round and wrinkled, and resembles the road on Grandott 
after the passage of a troop of hogs. They all have a worn 
look and never were three judges better matched in faces. 
This was the Court, called the Long Parliament, before 
which I was to be tried, I do not know for what." 

The correspondent to a New York journal reported: 

"The appearance Of the prisoner (loudly greeted by the 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 109 

boj^s around the door) and the reading of the indictment ex- 
cited much mirth in the courtroom. But their smiles all 
vanished on the examination of the first witness for the 
prosecution, who testified to outrages upon the female part 
of his family so gross and abominable that a general feeling 
of indignation put everything ludicrous to flight. The 
only provocation to this usage was the fact that the gentleman 
himself was an elder of the church; his son a prominent and 
active promoter of every object of a pious or benevolent char- 
acter, and his daughter a timid, diffident, retiring girl, one of 
the Sabbath school teachers; yet she had poured upon them 
torrents of coarse language Until they feared to appear at 
their own windows." 

The testimony of Henry Tims, doorkeeper of the 
Senate, for the defendant, hits on personality which 
awakened hilarity, in which bench, bar and jury joined. 
The significance of the hits were onhy for the time. 

President Jackson failed to appear; Secretary Eaton 
testified he had no knowledge of any misconduct on 
the part of Mrs. Royall. 

Mrs. Royall addressed the jury. The New York 
correspondent reports : 

"Advancing her wrinkled visage and swaying their souls 
with the majesty of her outstretched hand, she proceeded to 
abjure them as they loved liberty and their country not to 
sacrifice both in her person. Men stood not only for the 
present age, but the guardians of posterity. 

"This prosecution was but one branch of the general 
conspiracy of blue and black-hearted Presbyterians, the 
pirates and missionaries against freedom of speech and of the 
press. If they were permitted to succeed, who would answer 
for his home or his fireside? Nothing would be safe — bigotry 
and all the horrors of the Inquisition would overwhelm the 
land, and nothing would be left of all for which her husband 
and other worthies of the Revolution had shed their blood 
in the tented field." 

The jury rendered a verdict of guilty. 



no Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

The judge informed Mrs. Roy all that she must have 
bail or remain in jail until sentenced. Whereupon she 
exclaimed "This is a pretty country to live in!" 
The trial ended late Saturday evening. Secretary 
Eaton and other Jackson men hurriedly executed a 
bond; but unnecessarily, as two reporters of the Intel- 
ligencer — Thomas Dowling and Thomas Donohoo im- 
mediately upon the Judge's direction tendered security. 

Richard S. Coxe, Counsel for Mrs. Royall, argued 
the motion for arrest of judgment — National Intelligencer, 
July 31, 1928: 

' ' He suggested to the Court that, according to the authorities, 
there was no discretion in the Court to adjudge any other 
punishment to a common scold than the ducking stool; 
and a learned English Judge respited the judgment in a case 
of this description, because he was of the opinion that a duck- 
ing would only have the effect of hardening the offender. 
There was another consequence of this punishment, to which 
he called the attention of the Court, which was the privilege, 
which, according to legal writers, it conferred on the delin- 
quent of ever afterwards scolding with impunity. He begged 
that the Court would weigh this matter, and not be the first 
to introduce a ducking-stool, which had been obsolete in 
England since the reign of Queen Anne, reminding them that 
the very introduction of such an engine of punishment might 
have the effect of increasing the criminals of this class. If the 
Greek legislators would not enact a punishment for a crime 
not known to them lest it should induce persons to commit 
the offence, the Court might now suffer themselves to be 
influenced against the introduction of the ducking-stool, 
lest it might lead to an increase of common scolds. 

In opposition Mr. Swann argued — he however, ex- 
pressed his desire, as lessening of the severity, "that 
she should enjoy the benefit of a cold bath with as 
much privacy as possible." 

The ducking chance, the Court ducked by fining 

8 "Life and Times of Anne Royall," Sarah Harvey Porter. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. in 

the defendant ten dollars and costs and security for good 
behavior for a year. 

The proprietors of the National Intelligencer acquired 
the northwest corner of Seventh and D Streets July 8, 
1818, and there erected its plant. 9 The property was 
foreclosed together with all the accounts and appurte- 
nances of whatever nature and became the property 
of the Bank of the United States, August 15, 1829. 
Thereupon the proprietors became the tenants of the 
bank. The foreclosure included the former place on 
Pennsylvania Avenue. 

The Intelligencer was the organ of the administration 
from 1801 to 1816. By the vote of Congress it, from 
the passage of a law, March 3, 1818, at fixed prices had 
the public printing. This it lost by the change of 
administration — to Jackson — 1829. From this, a few 
years later, it began the publication of the Annals of 
the United States and the American State Papers under 
the authority and financial encouragement of the govern- 
ment by Congress. The prosperity of the proprietors 
was renewed and in greater measure. The periods in 
which the Intelligencer was in accord with the administra- 
tion it resumed the public printing. 10 

Because of the available space, places were allotted 
reporters on the floor at the direction of Congress by 
the Speaker. 

Mr. Smith reported for the Intelligencer exclusively 
until he had the assistance of Mr. Gales. From the 
association of Gales and Seaton they for ten years did 
their reporting without assistance. They had respec- 
tively seats beside the Vice President and Speaker. 
Says Miss Seaton: 

"This privilege, concomitant of the daily exchange of the 
snuff-box and friendly sentiment with the members, giving 

9 Square 431, lots 1 and 2, 75 x 100. Consideration 13,725. 

10 "A History of the National Capital," W. B. Bryan. 



ii2 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

the brother-editors a rare insight into the secret springs 
of debate the actual force and individuality of the giants of 
that day. Mr. Randolph sat near Mr. Seaton, and on one 
occasion when Mr. Clay, speaking in his not unusual personal 
and self-sufficient strain, said, among other things, that 'his 
parents had left him nothing but indigence and ignorance,' 
Randolph, turning to Mr. Seaton, said, in a stage whisper to 
be heard by the House: 'The gentleman might continue 
the alliteration, and add insolence.' " 

Gales and Seaton employed, 1822, an assistant stenog- 
rapher at one thousand dollars a session. Mrs. Seaton 
writes : 

"I think, dear father, you would have thought this handsome 
compensation when you pursued the same avocation with 
more indefatigable intensity in Philadelphia. You will 
perceive by the debates that truly the course of editors never 
does run smooth. In truth, 'tis a thankless task in most 
instances, considering too that the labor is voluntary and of 
no pecuniary value, unless enhancing the interest of the paper 
may be considered an equivalent for querulous carping and 
fault-finding from dissatisfied members, who feel themselves 
slighted in not finding their wisdom displayed to their con- 
stituents in two or three columns of the Intelligencer. Joseph 
writhes under these attacks, being never very tolerant of 
censure, but William bears them with rather amused patience." 

The Hayne — Webster memorable debate, January 
21-25, 1830, was reported by Mr. Gales. His daughter, 
Juliana W. Gales, March 30, 1903, writes: 

"The stenographic report of that speech was made by Mr. 
Joseph Gales, jr., himself; but in order that the speech of 
Mr. Webster should appear in the National Intelligencer 
without delay, on his return from the Capitol, Mr. Gales 
from his stenographic notes, dictated the text to Mrs. Gales, 
who wrote it out in a beautiful English hand, and the speech 
duly and punctually appeared, to Mr. Webster's great satis- 
faction. The speech in Mrs. Gales' handwriting with, I 
believe, Mr. Gales shorthand notes and one or two compli- 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 113 

mentary notes from Mr. and Mrs. Webster were bound to- 
gether in book form by Mr. Gales for his library. This 
book, after the death of Mr. Gales, was purchased by the 
honorable Robert C. Winthrop, on the part of the Historical 
Library of Boston, for that institution where it is preserved 
as a valuable historical relic." 

Laurence A. Gobright, "Recollection of Men and 
Things at Washington, During the Third of a Century:" 

"Joseph Gales, of the National Intelligencer, was the pioneer 
in verbatim reporting in Washington. Although he wrote 
what is now considered to be a clumsy system, — Gurney's — 
he was wonderfully rapid and accurate." 

Mr. Gobright relates that a reporter of the National 
Intelligencer fell asleep while taking a member's speech. 
After a half hour's sweet restorer, the reporter, refreshed, 
resumed his reportorial work. Another honorable mem- 
ber had the floor but the reporter did. not distinguish. 
Appeared as one speech parts of two speeches, different 
in character, emanating from the same speaker. 

Of the editorial assistants were Cannon, John S. 

Gallaher, W. A. Reed, Nathan Sargent, Eliab King- 
man, Otis, A. G. Allen, James Lawrenson, Laurence 

A. Gobright and John Sessford. 

In the business office were Major Thomas Donoho, 
who began service during the war of 1812; Col. Levi 
Boots, who was in the Mexican and Civil Wars; Samuel 
Glenn, John F. Coyle, whose father was one of the early 
compositors, and Edward Fletcher, long with the 
Washington Post. 

Of the foremen, were Alexander Tate, George M. 
Grouard, William Woodward, William Kerr, junior, 
and Captain William W. Moore. Of those in charge 
of the composing room and bindery were Samuel Mc- 
Elwee and Edward Deeble. 

Of the pressmen were Gabriel Barnhill, James King, 
Amidon and James Handley. 



ii4 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

Of the carriers, Patrick Corridon. 

Compositors before 1820 were: Simon Cameron, 
Francis Coyle, John H. Wade, John Erskine, Thomas 
G. Foster, Judah Delano, Thomas Larner, John S. 
Gallaher, Michael Carter, George Cochran, James 
Wilson, William Kerr, junior, Joseph F. Reed, John 
Brandon, Patrick Crowley, Martin King, Joseph Bain 
and James A. Kennedy. 

Compositors between 1820 and 1830 were: Luther 
Severance, Lambert Tree, James O'Bryon, James Cleph- 
ane, Thomas Herty, W. Faithful, John Stockwell, 
Andrew Rothwell, Jehiel Crossfield, John Frank, James 
King, John Bailey, Andrew Carothers, Enoch White, 
Michael Larner, Samuel Sherwood, William O'Bryon, 
John Thomas Whitaker, James Handley, James Thomp- 
son, Thomas Dowling, John Dowling, Enoch Edmonston, 
Tillinghast CoIUds, Robert C. Berret, John T. Butler 
Jonathan Wilson, William Woodward, Eugene Laporte, 
John Hart, Lynde Elliott, Ferdinand Jefferson, Thomas 
Francis and W. W. Haliday. 

Between 1830 and the early 40's were printers and 
in other capacities: Christian Klopfer, James F. Hali- 
day, Jacob Kleiber, Michael Crider, Thomas J. 
Haliday, A. ■ F. Cunningham, Charles P. Wannall, 
W. Edelin, Joseph Gales Johnson, Edward B. Robinson, 
Oscar Alexander, G. W. Hodges, Joseph L. Bennett, 
John Thomas Towers, Laurence A. Gobright, William 
A. Kennedy, John L. Smith, William E. Morcoe, Eleazer 
Brown, Robert A. Waters, Jonathan Kirkwood, Lemuel 
Towers, Thomas G. Foster, James E. Given, Flavius 
J. Waters, Henry Polkinhorn, Adam T. Cavis, Edward 
Spedden, John C. Franzoni, Columbus Drew, Josiah 
Melvin, J. G. Sample, Joseph B. Tate, Samuel Sherwood, 
John T. C. Clark, R. W. Clark, Joshua T. Taylor, 
Jehiel Crossfield, Charles W. Pettit, John Larcombe, 
Francis McNerhany, James Crossfield. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 115 

The Intelligencer was a training school for other 
honorable posts. Simon Cameron was Senator and 
Secretary of War. Luther Severance, representative 
in Congress and commissioner to the Sandwich Islands. 
John S. Gallaher was Third Auditor of the Treasury. 
John T. Towers was Mayor. In the Councils were 
William Woodward, James F. Haliday, John T. Towers, 
Charles P. Wannall, John L. Smith, Ferdinand Jefferson, 
James A. Kennedy, Thomas Donoho, Robert A. Waters, 
Lambert Tree, William W. Moore, Francis McNerhany, 
Nathan Sargent. Andrew Rothwell and James F. 
Haliday, were Collector of Taxes. Thomas Herty 
was Register aad Secretary to First Chamber: William 
A. Kennedy, Secretary of Common Council. John 
L. Smith and John T. C. Clark were magistrates or 
Justices of the Peace, for a livelihood. 

A list is given of those who graduated from the Intel- 
ligencer and engaged in allied work. Judah Delano, 
Henry Polkinhorn, John T. Towers, Lemuel Towers 
and Robert A. Waters had local printing establishments. 
Tillinghast Collins had a printing establishment in 
Philadelphia, and John Hart in South Carolina. John 
Hart and John T. Towers were Superintendents of 
Public Printing. John S. Gallaher was editor and 
correspondent; and Eliab Kingman and Laurence A. 
Gobright were correspondents. Adam T. Cavis was 
an editor in Georgia. Ferdinand Jefferson was the 
assistant Editor of the National Republican. Columbus 
Drew, Josiah Melvin and Joseph B. Tate were local 
editors. 

Luther Severance was the founder of the Kennebec 
Journal, Maine. Andrew Rothwell was the proprietor 
of the Washington City Chronicle and Literary Repository 
weekly and the compiler of Digest of Laws of the 
Corporation of Washington. Columbus Drew was the 
proprietor of The American, tri-weekly; Laurence A. 



n6 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

Gobright and Josiah Melvin were proprietors of The 
Daily Bee, a penny daily; and Joseph B. Tate was the 
owner of the American Daily Telegraph. 

Mr. Tate in the American promotion failed. Having 
caught his breath, he started July 14, 1852, The Evening 
Star, never to cease to illuminate. In a few years 
Mr. Tate disposed of his ownership. He continued in 
the service as a clerk. Mr. Tate evidently from journa- 
listic experience thought it financial wisdom to be on the 
payroll in a subordinate position with more definiteness 
and certainty of compensation than take the gamble of 
what is left for the proprietor. Not for his financial 
judgment will be his monument — it will be in founding 
a paper which fortunately has had a succession of editors, 
of editorial talent of highest order, who with inexhaustible 
industry and brilliancy of intellect have, in cogency of 
argument and strength of fact, championed the people 
of the District of Columbia against excessive taxation 
and for the American principle, rightful legislative 
representation. 

Nearly thirty three years before the attack on Fort 
Sumter, Mr. Gales gave warning of internecine conflict. 
In the issue July 12, 1828 is 

"The Crisis. Under this head we made a few remarks, some 
days ago, the object of which was to open the eyes of the 
People to the movement in the South against the laws and 
against the union of these States. What we have since seen 
satisfies us that there is a project on foot for a virtual disso- 
lution of this Union and that men of no vulgar name are at 
the bottom of it." 

The Intelligencer favored with the influence it could 
command, the distinguished Georgian, William H. 
Crawford, for the Whig candidate for President. It 
ruffled Mr. Adams. However the unevenness was 
ironed out. With equal zeal it favored Mr. Adams' 
reelection. It voiced its admiration of him and its 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 117 

praise of his administration in an octave higher than the 
editorial keyboard, generally in use, permitted. July 

18, 1828: 

"In the history of the created world, was there ever a 
nation through whose borders peace reigneth more completely 
than ours?" 

"Was there ever on earth an Executive Magistrate more 
assiduous in the discharge of his public duties, more temperate 
in the exercise of his acknowledged powers, than the present 
Chief Magistrate of the United States? 

"Was there ever a government by which honest men have 
been less disturbed by the ruling power in the full enjoyment 
of life, Liberty, or property during the last three years, than 
in this?" 

"Answer. — Those who are out of power want to get in. 
Hence the administration must be put down, though as pure 
as the Angels that stand at the right hand of the throne of 
God." 

Mr. Gales was the author, generally, of the editorials. 
He was human and illustrated a human adage — that 
he who laughs last laughs best; and Mr. Gales in one 
instance laughed so heartily — and in the wrong order — 
that he made himself to be laughed at. However, 
the unpleasant predicament he acknowledged with un- 
common good sense. At the time of the Adams-Jackson 
contest, November, 1828, there was no telegraphic or 
other quick report of news. The earliest return, that 
from Ohio, indicated the reelection of Mr. Adams. Here 
the ascension of jubilation and then the drop: 

November 10: "Never, since the memorable day on which 
we received the News of the success of our Commissioners 
at Ghent, in concluding a Peace " (John Quincy Adams and 
Henry Clay were two of them) " have we been able to present 
to our readers News so important or so glorious as will be found 
in the following columns." 



n8 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

November 18: "The contest is over. . . . Should he live, 
therefore to enjoy the honor, it may be regarded as certain 
that Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, is to be the next President 
of the United States. 

"That this result is as contrary to our expectations as it 
is foreign to our wishes, abundant proof has been furnished 
by our columns for the last two years, and especially for the 
last six months." 

The late Ben. Perley Poore and Henry A. Willard 
became the owners of the letters of the Intelligencer 
upon its close. They made several wagon loads. 
Mostly they were from public men, well known in 
their day and generation. Many related to subscrip- 
tions and many to governmental affairs. The latter 
evidenced the estimate of the editors' advice. 

To Joseph Gales. 

"Sunday morning (December 13, 1834) 
"Dear Sir, — I have read the marked passages in the Albany 
Argus — they are a tissue of falsehoods. I know not whether 
it be worth while to contradict the calumny. If you think it 
be, call over here & we will have a paragraph made. 

"Yrs 
"D. Webster" 
On a Mistake. 

"My Dear Messrs. G. & S., — What does yr Reporter mean 
by making me say, yesterday I had no opposition (for 'incli- 
nation') to address the Senate? 

"I do now declare, that between the chance of making 
myself ridiculous, & and the chance of being made so by 
Reporters, who appear so me perfectly incapable of under- 
standing the plainest idea, it is with terror I open my mouth! 
I know well, too, that subsequent explanation only makes it 
more awkward. I sd. but six words, and as I had meaning 
in them, I took care to say them, as I thought, so that I 
could not possibly be misunderstood. 

"Yrs, in a good deal of rage agt. the Reporters, but with 
a great deal of love to you. 

"D. Webster" 



Clark: J osejjh Gales, Junior. 119 

Of Mr. Gales it cannot be said 

"His corn and cattle were his only care, 
And his supreme delight a country fair." — Dryden. 

He did delight to enter the lists with the other boasters, 
that is, the agriculturists. His boasting was not in 
vain. Having once won he did not have to put off his 
bragging to another time. At the " Maryland Agri- 
cultural Exhibition in November, 1824, delivered by the 
hands of Lafayette, a premium for fatted swine," Mr. 
Gales proudly received — and preserved — two wrought- 
silver goblets. 11 

Mr. Gales was an advocate for good roads. He was 
of the managers of the Rockville and Washington Turn- 
pike Company. It is now a section of the National High- 
way and protected by the Daughters of the American 
Revolution. Mr. Gales to widen the public road by his 
country place contributed a strip of thirty feet, whereas 
the owners on the opposite side required compensation. 

In the flowers, the soul of Mr. Gales saw 

"Priests, sermons, shrines!" 

and at the organization of "The Columbian Horticul- 
tural Society," August 21, 1833, for Washington County, 
he was selected Vice-President. 

In the fore part of the nineteenth century in these 
parts the races was the event. It was democratic. 
It was a leveller. To it went the fashionable and the 
unfashionable; those who had wealth and those who 
wanted it. 

Mrs. Seaton wrote in her journal: 

October, 1812. 
"Yesterday was a day of all days in Washington, — hundreds 
of strangers from Maryland and Virginia, in their grand equi- 
pages, to see a race! Gov. Wright with his horses to run, 
Col. Holmes with his, and people of every condition straining 

11 Mr. Seaton was Mrs. Gales' proxy. 



120 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

at full speed. Mr. and Mrs. Madison, the departments of 
government, all, all for the race! Major L — , who is hand 
and glove with every grandee, and perfectly in his element, 
called for William, while I accompanied Dr. and Mrs. Blake, 
and old Governor Wright of Maryland, in their handsome 
carriage to the field. It was an exhilarating spectacle, even 
if one took no interest in the main event of the day; and such 
an assemblage of stylish equipages I never before witnessed. 
A large number of agreeable persons, residents and strangers, 
were introduced to us." 

The course was north of Columbia Road and between 
Fourteenth and Sixteenth Streets. Joseph Gales was 
the Vice-President of the Washington Jockey Club. 
September 26, 1826. 

At Warburton Manor, Mrs. Gales returned the kind 
visit of Mr. Digges at Sheffield. The host on the 
dressing table the morning of her departure found her 
address : 

"O, what a goodly scene mine eyes embrace! 
Mingling with Flora's tints of varied dye, 
Painted on Nature's sweet and pleasant face, 
Woods, vales, and streams in sweet confusion he. 

"Let poets boast of Arno's shelvy side! 
And sing the beauties of the classic Po, 
Give me Potomac's grand, majestic tide, 
Sparkling beneath the sun's effulgent glow! 

"Farewell, Potomac! o'er thy waters wide 
I take a lingering but delightful view; 
Whilst the gay vessel dances on the tide, 
I bid thee, Warburton, a last adieu. 

"Perhaps no more to see my early friend, — 
No more his hospitable smile to meet, 
Where true politeness and kind friendship blend, 
The ever-welcome, grateful guest to greet. 

"Winifred Gales." 

In Congressional Cemetery on a slab supported by 
columns, is chiseled: 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 121 

Here lie deposited the earthly remains of 

Winifred Gales, 

Who died June 26th 1829, aged nearly 78 years. 

She was the daughter of John and Eliz. Marshall 

of Newark in Nottinghamshire, England: 

Was born July 12, 1761 and married to Jos. Gales, 

of Sheffieldshire, May 4 1784 

Thence they with their children emigrated 

to the United States in August 1795. 

The deceased possessed a strong and cultivated 

mind, was a Christian in profession and practice 

and each of her surviving friends 

may sincerely say 

"Let me die the death of the righteous and 

my last end be like hers." 

Joseph Gales, senior, died August 24, 1841, at Raleigh, 
N. C. He continued to publish the Raleigh Register 
until within a few years of his death. The publication 
was continued by his son, Weston Gales. Mr. Gales' 
journalistic life was marked by industry, intelligence 
and independence; his private life by public spirit, en- 
larged benevolence and unbroken integrity. 

The gentle poet may have had, must have had, an 
influence, a beneficial influence, an influence which 
was never lost, upon Joseph Gales. One of Mr. Seaton's 
family from the " Mount" on Sheffield wrote: 

"Who says that Montgomery is morose? He is a trump, a 
delightful old man, whom I could reverence and love in a week, 
so unsophisticated and pure in his tastes and habits is he. 
I have seen him and Aunt Sarah every clay, and they are cordial 
and affectionate as possible; and in the dinner at their house 
I enjoyed the meeting exceedingly; Montgomery took his pipe, 
and chatted in the most charming, easy, and winning manner." 

At the family devotion, April 30, 1854, he handed 
to her the bible and said " Sarah you must read." He 
prayed with "peculiar pathos." He conversed cheer- 



122 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

fully as he smoked his pipe. And as lightly as floated 
the tiny clouds of smoke he lapsed into slumber never 
on earth to wake. 

The compilations of Gales and Seaton in connection 
with the U. S. Government are many and important. 
The first volume of forty two of the Annals of Congress 
was the work of Joseph Gales, senior. Besides the 
Annals are the American State Papers and Registers of 
Debates in Congress. 

Mr. Gales never wrote a book. However were two 
reproductions in pamphlet form from the Daily National 
Intelligencer: "A Sketch of the Personal Character and 
Qualities of General Zachary Taylor;" and, "The 
Past, the Present, and the Future." The latter a dis- 
cussion of the attitude of the South, more particularly, 
of South Carolina. 

"A Reminiscence" by Mr. Gales, in part, is copied 
for the interesting matter and for the style of composition. 
Mr. Gales' habitual moderation is evidenced in his 
criticism of the drawn out discussion in Congress. 
Another editor in later years, Donn Piatt, in The Capital 
had less respect for the national legislators. He used 
such designations as "the fog bank" and "the wind 
mill." "The fog Bank loomed up dense and heavy." 
"The legislative branch of our free government is a 
machine run by wind." An apparently interminable 
discussion on Amnesty called from Mr. Piatt the illus- 
tration : 

"In the middle ages, a German monk spent forty years and 
wrote twenty-four volumes on the first paragraph of the 
first chapter of the book of Genesis. He would have spent 
more time and written a larger number of volumes on the 
significant prelude to Holy Writ for the benefit of his fellow 
men, had not Death invaded the convent home of the prolific 
monk." 

Under identical conditions to those stated by Mr. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 123 

Gales, within the year 1917, the flood of talk so exas- 
perated a Mississippi Senator 12 he exclaimed: 

"You have danced your ballet. You have sung your song. 
America is tired of you and we are tired of you. We want 
you to do something." 

Daily National Intelligencer, August 25, 1849: 

"Thirty-Four Years Ago. 
"A Reminiscence. 

"There are few men in the course of whose life events have 
not occasionally occurred to make up the liveliest reminiscences 
of days gone by and of incidents which, at different periods, 
have made the deepest and most lasting impressions on our 
minds. The occurrences so brought out are ordinarily such 
as, having constituted epochs in one's own span of existence, 
stand in the memory as landmarks of his journey through life. 

"Such an event in our own life is the decease of that most 
excellent Lady, the relict of President Madison, whose mortal 
remains we have but lately followed to the tomb. 

"Of the recollections which crowd upon us of her goodness 
and gentleness, of her womanly virtues and graces, of the 
dignity, as well as kindness which distinguished her as Lady 
of the Secretary of State and President of the United States 
during a residence of sixteen years in this city, it is not 
our purpose here to go into the detail. One scene, however, 
in which as the President's Lady she acted well her part — 
as when did she not? — has so frequently recurred to mind 
in connexion with the history of our own times, and is now 
again so fully remembered, that perhaps our readers may not 
be displeased by the attempt which we shall make at a sketch 
of it. 

"Never from the beginning of this Government to the 
present has a more gloomy day dawned upon it than the 
thirteenth day of February, in the year, 1815. 

"Congress had assembled on the 19th of September pre- 
ceding — not as might be supposed from the date, in conse- 

12 John Sharp Williams. 



124 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

quence of the then recent capture of the city by the enemy 
but in pursuance of a requisition by the President anterior 
to that event, calling Congress together (as the [President 
informed the two Houses in his message at the opening at 
that session) for the purpose of supplying the inadequacy 
of the finances to the existing wants of the Treasury, and of 
making further and more effectual provision for prosecuting 
the war. 



". . . Much time was consumed, besides in debates upon 
questions which ought never to have been suffered to inter- 
fere with the discussion of measure of vital consequence, 
demanded by the alarming state of prostration and financial 
debility to which the Government was reduced. Several 
days were passed in the consideration of an abortive propo- 
sition to remove the seat of Government from Washington; 
and, whilst the enemy was almost actually in sight from the 
windows of the building in which Congress was temporarily 
sitting gentlemen found time to make and argue idle propo- 
sitions for amending the Constitution, and to squabble about 
private claims older than the Government itself. At the 
very most critical moment of the session for example, a 
whole day was spent in debating a bill, with the merits of 
which all the members were by long acquaintance made 
familiar to pay for Amy Darden's horse. 

"Some time about noon of that memorable day mysteriously 
arose a rumor, faint at first as the earliest whisper of the 
Western breeze on a Summer's morn, but freshening and 
gathering strength as it spread, until later in the day, it 
burst forth in a general acclaim of Peace! Peace! Peace! 
Startled by a sound so unexpected and so joyful, men flocked 
into the streets, eagerly inquiring of one another whence and 
how came the news, and, receiving no answer, looking up into 
the Heavens with straining eyes, as though expecting a visible 
sign of it from the seat of that Omnipotence by whose in- 
spiration alone they could, but a short moment before, 
have even hoped for so great a blessing. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 125 

"When at length, the rumor assumed a more definite 
shape, the story ran that a private express had passed through 
the city at some time during the day, bearing to merchants 
in the South the glad tidings that a Treaty of Peace had 
actually reached the shores of the United States. It was 
still but a rumor, however, and wanted that consistency which 
was necessary to gratify full confidence in it. 

"Steam conveyances and Electric Telegraphs had not then 
been invented to realize the lover's prayer to the Gods to 
' annihilate both time and space ' ; and all classes in Washington 
had, with the President, no choice but to wait the compara- 
tively slow process of travel by horses and carriages from New 
York to Washington, for confirmation or contradiction of 
the report. The interval of suspense it may be imagined, 
was sufficiently tedious, though it was brought to an end as 
early as could have been reasonably expected. Late in the 
afternoon of Thursday, the 14th of Febuary, came thundering 
down the Pennsylvania avenue a. coach and four foaming 
steeds, in which was Mr. Henry Carroll, (one of the Secretaries 
at Ghent) the bearer, as was at once ascertained, of the 
Treaty of Peace concluded at Ghent between the American 
and British Commissioners. Cheers and congratulations 
followed the carriage, as it sped its way to the office of the 
Secretary of State, and directly thence, with the acting 
Secretary of State, to the residence of the President. 

"The reader, who has followed our narrative thus far, 
will begin to wonder how the demise of Mrs. Madison could 
have brought all this so vividly to mind. The relation which 
she bore to Mr. Madison, and her entire identification with 
him in all the memories of the past would be sufficient to 
account for it. But the particular incident in the inaugur- 
ation of the Treaty of Peace, the memory of which dwelt 
upon our minds, comes now to be told in its place. 

"The other Members of the Cabinet having joined the 
Secretary of State at the President's residence, the Treaty 
was of course taken into immediate consideration by the 
President and the Cabinet. 

"Soon after night-fall, Members of Congress and others, 



126 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

deeply interested in the event, presented themselves at the 
President's House, the doors of which stood open. When 
the writer of this entered the Drawing-room, at about 8 
o'clock, it was crowded to its full capacity, Mks. Madison 
(the President being with the Cabinet) doing the honors of 
the occasion. And what a happy scene it was! Among 
the large proportion present of the Members of both Houses 
of Congress, were gentlemen of most opposite politics, but 
lately arrayed against one another in continual conflict and 
fierce debate, now with elated spirits thanking God, and with 
softened hearts cordially felicitating one another, upon the 
joyful intelligence which (should the terms of the Treaty be 
acceptable) re-establish Peace, and opened a certain prospect 
of a great prosperity to their country. But the most con- 
spicuous object in the room, the observed of all observers, 
was Mrs. Madison herself, then in the meridian of life and 
queenly beauty. She was, in her person, for the moment, 
the representative of the feelings of him who was, at this 
moment, in grave consultation with his official advisers. 
No one could doubt, who beheld the radiance of joy which 
lighted up her countenance and diffused its beams around, 
that all uncertainty was at an end, and that the Government 
of the country had, in very truth, (to use an expression of 
Mr. Adams on a very different occasion) 'passed from gloom 
to glory.' With grace all her own, to her visitors she recipro- 
cated heartfelt congratulations upon the glorious and happy 
change in the aspect of public affairs, dispensing, with liberal 
hand, to every individual in the large assembly the proverbial 
hospitalities of that house. 

"The Cabinet being still in session, the writer of this article 
was presently invited into the apartment it was sitting .... 
Subdued joy sat upon the face of every one of them. The 
President, after kindly stating the result of their delibera- 
tions, addressed himself to the Secretary of the Treasury in 
a sportive tone, saying to him, 'Come, Mr. Dallas, you, with 
your knowledge of the contents of the Treaty derived from 
the careful perusal of it, and who write with so much ease 
take the pen and indite for this gentleman a paragraph 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 127 

for the paper of to-morrow, to announce the reception and 
probable acceptance of the Treaty.' 

"Mr. Dallas cheerfully complied. . . . ' 

Mr. Gales had sympathy for those distressed by 
destitution and was watchful to relieve. When Mayor, 
Mr. Gales organized ward committees to solicit sub- 
scriptions for funds to relieve the poor from the rigors 
of the winter. In early years and through life he showed 
substantial sympathy. In 1810 13 he was President of 
the Washington Humane Society, an organization of 
young men with representatives from the wards to 
assist the poor. In 1812, 14 he was Vice-President of 
the Washington Benevolent Society, having as its object, 
the promotion of charity. 

Of his traits, Mr. Gales' generosity, was most fre- 
quently mentioned. He gave without display. His 
left hand knew not what his right hand did. He gave 
without the influence of friendly acquaintanceship. 
He gave to those who abused him, repaying with blessing, 
persecution. He gave sometimes to impostors — that 
the needy might not suffer because of doubt. He 
gave when near to embarrassment himself, showing 
self sacrifice. 

In dire straits for material to print The Huntress 
to Mrs. Royall's rescue, Mr. Gales came, giving orders 
that she should have all the paper she needed and free 
of cost. And this, notwithstanding the editress had 
abused him in her paper and had repeated the weak 
wit of the day in referring to the kind and dignified 
editor as "Josy." Meeting her in the streets one day 
when the weather was freezing, Mr. Gales slipped a 
five dollar bill into Mrs. Royall's hand and told her 
to buy herself a pair of warm shoes with it. And said 
she "It was the very last bill in Mr. Gales' pocket- 

13 National Intelligencer, November 20, 29, 1810. 

14 National Intelligencer, February 4, 1812. 



128 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

book." Conscience striken, she apologetically says: 
' ' I should be a traitor to my country if I let my gratitude 
for personal favors keep me from attacking the editor 
of the Intelligencer as the author of sentiments which 
spell Ruin for this nation." 

Mary J. Windle, October, 1857: 

"In our city at the corner of Seventh and D streets, is a 
building not very noticeable but for the extent of ground 
it covers and its ancient and dingy aspect. This structure 
can be said to represent no order of architecture; indeed, 
architectural elegance seems not to have been thought of 
when it was designed; display is everywhere scrupulously 
eschewed. 

"On entering the door you find yourself in a low-browed, 
smoke-stained room, with discolored desks and counters. 
All the appendages seem old-fashioned, even to the aged 
clerk, who receives you with a politeness, alas! old-fashioned 
too. If you come on business with the principal you will 
find yourself ascending a narrow and rather gloomy flight 
of stairs. Having accomplished the ascent to the first landing, 
you arrive at a door which you are told is the entrance to the 
editor's room. Before a table covered with papers, pam- 
phlets, and manuscripts, sits a venerable-looking man with 
a pencil in his left hand (his right hand has been paralyzed 
for some time) as if deliberating a leader, of which but a 
single line is written. No one can glance at that face and 
not at once perceive it to be that of a remarkable man. It is a 
face more noticeable for character than beauty. 

"With the name of this gentleman (Joseph Gales) the 
idea of the National Intelligencer is inseparably connected. 
For a long series of years he has been its conductor; and, 
though backed by a host of varied talent, he may truly be 
called its life and soul, breathing his spirit as a refining and 
uniting principle over that able journal. His editorials are 
considered close in argument, finished in execution, pure in 
style, and as refined in thinking as they are exquisite in diction. 
As specimens of pure and perfect English they might stand 
as models. He opposes with his pen, quietly but unresistingly 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 129 

every measure which might lead to a disruption of the Union. 
In the defeats of the party of which his journal is the acknow- 
ledged exponent, he never admits himself discouraged, 
depressed, or dismayed, but from every fall seems to rise, 
like Antaeus, with renewed vigor. 

"Such is a hasty sketch of the venerable chief editor of the 
chief organ of the Old Line Whig party. Whether we view 
him as the acute critic, as the fervid politician, as the high- 
minded and generous man, we have before us one of the 
ablest men of the day. The journal of which he is the acknow- 
ledged head wields a powerful and elevating influence through- 
out the entire country. 

"And yet, reader, he has still higher honor in the hearts of 
all the people about him. The poor and unfortunate are 
peculiarly his friends. He arrives in Seventh Street, from 
his residence in the country, in the same cozy, close carriage 
which has made its journey thither daily for the last thirty 
years, so punctual to its hour that, were its driver and occupant 
wanting, the horse would doubtless convey the vehicle in 
safety, and stop, from the force of habit, at the precise hour, 
before the low-roofed building. As he passes from his carriage 
to the office, the passing beggar for once ceases to be voci- 
ferous, so certain is he of receiving a spontaneous gratuity 
from him. Within he is quite likely to be met by the appeal 
of a widow with one of those large families of orphans, who 
feels certain of assistance from him. For, it is well known 
in our city dear reader, that this venerable man is troubled 
with a melancholy cavity in his brain, where acquisitiveness 
is not! 

"Narrow-hearted and parsimonious people shake their 
heads ominously, and say, that to see a man wasting his 
means on everybody in this way is enough to make the very 
stones cry out, 'Doing such useless things and so much for 
other people — he ought to remember the 'rainy day'! They 
forget that it is recorded of many great men that they were 
equally non-retentive of money. Schiller, when he had 
nothing else to give away, gave the clothing from his back, 
and Goldsmith the blankets from his bed. 



130 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

"Such weaknesses are the drapery in which we enfold our 
model men." 

Mary J. Windle, June, 1857: 

"We were walking down Seventh Street yesterday in a 
meditative mood, . . . when our meditations were suddenly 
put to flight by the appearance of the noble dog, so well 
known here as the property of the venerable editors of the 
Intelligencer. He held in his mouth a basket containing 
papers on their way to the post-office. 

"In describing the Intelligencer dog, conceive it, dear reader, 
a stately mastiff of the first magnitude, with noble features 
and wavy ears. If we might presume to give advice to 
Edwin Landseer, to whom the species is largely indebted, 
we would recommend him, when next he has to paint a royal 
dog, to study the courtly and dignified carriage of our Wash- 
ington favorite. 

" Since the dog in the famous picture, which has been worked 
in Berlin wool at every boarding school, never was an animal 
so popular From the venerable senior editor in his invalid 
chair, to the little printer's 'devil' in the mechanical depart- 
ment, he is welcomed with joy, and allowed to express his 
personal likings as fully as a crowned head. All study his 
conveniences and caprices almost before their own; and the 
noble animal is not unworthy of these favors. He is a loving 
and affectionate dog, walking with measured step at his master's 
side, looking with expressive attached eyes into his face and 
when, as now, in feeble health, crouching beside him with 
the air of a miniature lion guarding a king. 

"If the faithful dog could write, why, he might achieve a 
pamphlet on 'politics,' out of the table-talk of his master's 
political friends. Think seriously, dear public, of his peculiar 
advantages as an unsuspected 'confidant' of the first states- 
man of the day. The noble 'Old Line Whig' politicians 
converse together without restraint in his presence; and the 
lamented Clay was said to seek advice of these Napoleans of 
the press within reach of this dog's long ears. 

"It is said he is discerning enough to discriminate between 
a 'Whig' and a 'Democrat,' and that his eyes glare upon the 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 131 

latter, like Mr. Murdock in Richard. It is also asserted that 
he gave an affirmative wag of the tail when the news of 
General Taylor's election was announced; but stood stoutly 
on his four limbs, with a negative wag, when the sad reverse, 
and Mr. Buchanan's triumph was proclaimed." 

Mary J. Windle's sympathies were strongly South- 
ern. She emphasized the excellences of the down-Dixie 
Statesmen. She at the conclusion of the Civil War 
lived in a Washington boarding house — 482 12th Street, 
old numbering. She was accused of maliciously tearing 
away the flags and throwing them from the windows — - 
"asserting her Southern friends should not be insulted 
by any such demonstrations in the house where she 
lived" — and further accused of not permitting her 
room to be illuminated, while the others were, and 
repeating similar sentiments. She was prosecuted. She 
protested innocence. 

At this time she was recalled "as the writer of various 
namby-pamby works," specifying, "Life in Washington," 
who plagiarized bodily from Blackwood's Magazine 
and Mrs. Gray's novels. The charges were exaggerations 
due to the prevailing bitterness and as to "Life in Wash- 
ington," apparently, without foundation. The authoress 
contributed to The Ladies National Magazine, a poem, 
"On hearing a gentleman express skeptical sentiments," 
and produced "Life at the White Sulphur Springs" 
and tw T o works on Legendary. 15 

The First Unitarian Church, now the All Souls, was 
organized November, 1821. Of the original member- 
ship were Joseph Gales, senior and junior. Mr. Gales, 
junior, was the more active in the church w r ork. He 
however did not confine himself to Unitarianism in 
church activity. Says Virginia Miller, January 24, 
1918: 

15 The author during "her visits to the Library of Congress erased 
her name wherever she found it and wrote Mary Jane McLane." 



132 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

"As a child I used to watch to see Mr. Gales and herself come 
into St. John's church and wonder how she would get by 
the red hot stove she had to pass without burning her pretty 
clothes. St. John's was differently arranged then — they 
used to enter the H st door and through a narrow defile turn 
round a corner to a pew facing the chancel, the Rector's pew 
was in front of them and old Blind Joe sat on the front bench." 16 

Mr. Gales called his country place, Eckington. 
The old farmhouse was near the Brentwood Road. 
It was small and was often in the early years the meeting 
place of the Bread and Cheese Club. The members were 
of literary cultivation and cheerful companionship. 
When the pretentious house was built, the old farm- 
house became the overseer's home. Near the embank- 
ment of the Metropolitan Branch was the spring; and 
the stream over which was the dairy. 

Mr. Gales built the mansion in 1830. Charles Bird 
King, the artist, was the architect. 

"It consisted of two stories with cellar basement; on the first 
floor was four rooms of good size and a wide hall, with a 
back building, adding kitchen and servants' rooms; the 
upper flour had four chambers and twelve foot square library, 
where were written most of the editorials. ... "A lofty, 
wide portico supported by six doric pillars extended the 
whole front of the house." 

Immediately in front of the entrance was a mighty 
hickory suggestive of "Old Hickory " and called "General 
Jackson." From the mansion directly south was in 
bold relief the Capitol and before its addition for majestic 
proportions, the dome and the wings; and farther south 
"the silvery sweep of the river." The gate was directly 
opposite to the north boundary stone, on North Capitol 
Street. 

16 "Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Church of Washington, D. C," 
Jennie W. Scudder. Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 133 

"The hall became memorable as the scene of the family 
prayers, the Christmas games, tableaux, private theatricals, 
and wedding festivities. On the walls hung many paintings 
and portraits. Among the latter was one of Mr. Gales' 
father, holding in his hand a folded copy of the National 
Intelligencer, which the old gentleman, with a just pride in 
his son's journalistic fame, insisted upon introducing into the 
picture greatly to the disgust (on art principles) of the 
artist, Mr. King. He had his revenge, however, by placing 
above the only advertisement column visible, 'Dry Goods,' 
and thus it remains to this day. Here also hung a curious, very 
old engraving of the City of Rome, in size six feet long, by 
forty inches deep, done as a Latin tablet announces, under 
the auspices of ' Carlo III ' of Spain, ' in 1765 ' by one ' Guiseppe 
Vasi,' etc. Every palace, church, garden, mount, and residence 
is numbered and it was a morning pastime to pick out the 
name of each from the Key appended below." 

The distinguished of the nation and the foreign nations 
were guests. And none more distinguished than the 
recipient of Mrs. Gales' card: 

"My dear Mrs. Madison, 

"I expect a few friends to pas the evening with me and 
shall be most happy if you and Miss Payne will give me the 
pleasure of your company at 3^2 P a st 8 o'clock. 
" Believe me dear Madam 

Most affectionately 

and Truly yours 

S. J. M. Gales." 

"Here in the summer of 1847, or thereabouts, Sir James 
Bucknell Estcourt, of the United States and British North- 
eastern Boundary Commission, having finished his official 
labors, passed, with this accomplished wife, a fortnight very 
delightfully, alike to hosts and guests, and during the visit 
the curious coincidence was discovered that Col. Estcourt's 
brother was at that very time the rector of the Episcopal 
church at Eckington in the Old Country. A brisk and 
interesting correspondence followed between the old Eckington 



134 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

and its American namesake; and on her return to England, 
Lady Estcourt sent to Mr. Gales a water color sketch, painted 
by the rector's daughter, of the old church where the Gales' 
ancestors lie buried, a pretty sketch in itself and greatly prized 
for its associations." 17 

Mr. Gales welcomed the militia and the schools to 
the Eckington groves. 

Mr. Gales died July 21, 1860. 

The surviving editor in the Intelligencer, set in mourn- 
ing, July 23, used the appropriate words: 

"Death of Mr. Gales. It becomes our painful duty to 
announce to the readers of this journal that Joseph Gales is 
no more. He died a few minutes after seven o'clock on Satur- 
day evening last, at Eckington, his late residence, near the city. 
He was in the 75th year of his age. Though this melancholy 
event was not entirely unexpected in consequence of Mr. 
Gales' infirm health for some months past, it is none the less 
true the blow so long suspended has at last fallen with a 
weight as sudden as it is afflictive. It is some consolation, 
however, to know that his end was calm and painless as his 
life had been serene and virtuous. Full of years and full 
of honors, rich in the tributes of veneration and regard 
awarded by good and great men throughout the land, and 
beloved as falls to the lot of few, by all who shared his nearer 
companiship in the home and in the walks of private life, 
he has been gathered by the great reaper, Death, a sheaf fully 
ripe for the harvest, into a garner made fragrant and precious 
by the fruits of a life ever noble in its aspirations and ever 
laborious in good works. It is not for us, least of all at a 
moment like this, to write his epitaph, nor the words of formal 
commemoration needed to indite for our readers that eulogy 
which they equally with us, are competent to celebrate in 
memory of his intellectual greatness. It were better that we 
should keep silent while as yet the startled ears seems caught 
by the sound of a voice crying with such thrilling emphasis 
from the scene of his former activities, like that voice which 

17 Pictures of the City of Washington in the Past," Samuel C. Busey, 
M.D. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 135 

the Revelator heard from Heaven, saying: 'Write blessed 
are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith 
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their 
works do follow them.' " 

The councils convened, July 23. The message of 
the acting Mayor, William T. Dove was read and 
memorial resolutions were adopted. 

Dr. William B. Magruder, in the board of Alderman, 
said: 

"No employee, no dependent, ever found a better employer 
or a more indulgent father, no community was ever blessed 
by the presence in it of a more benevolent citizen. If he 
had been an almoner from High Heaven he could have been 
no more than he was save perhaps that his sphere of benevo- 
lence might have been more extended." . . . 

Horatio N. Easby, in the Board of Common Council, 
said: 

" As a political writer, as a sound and conservative journalist 
he has never been excelled. The columns of the National 
Intelligencer, over which he has presided for more than two 
generations, afford the best evidence of his pureness of heart, 
his urbanity, and kindness, and may be taken as a correct 
exponent of his vigorous intellect, his benevolence, and his love 
of virtue. In the language of an eminent statesman now passed 
away, Joseph Gales had the mind to grasp the affairs of a 
nation, and a heart that would fill the universe with its 
kindness." ... « 

June 24, 1860. Citizens of Washington, Georgetown 
and Alexandria met at the City Hall to form the pro- 
cession to Eckington. The services were conducted 
by Rev. Smith Pyne assisted by Reverends Clement M. 
Butler and Charles H. Hall respective rectors of St. 
John's, Trinity and Epiphany. The pallbearers were 
General Walter Jones, General Roger C. Weightman, 
Richard S. Coxe, Thomas L. Smith, William L. Hodge, 
James M. Carlisle and James C. Welling. 



136 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

The cortege moved on New York Avenue to Seventh 
Street to Pennsylvania Avenue to the Congressional 
Cemetery. Of it were Mr. Buchanan, the President, 
members of the cabinet, army and navy officers and 
other personages in high station together with municipal 
bodies and mechanics' associations. The bells tolled. 
The schools closed for the day and business houses, 
generally, from three o'clock. The City Hall, the 
offices of the Intelligencer and the Congressional Globe 
were draped with emblematic mourning. 

With the National Journal, the paper of Peter Force, 
the National Intelligencer moved in harmony and between 
them were consultations as to terms of subscription 
and omissions of issue on holidays. With some of 
the other journals were times of irritation which broke 
out into calling names without scurrility. The Intel- 
ligencer resenting being put in false attitude in a matter 
of Congressman Rhett called the offending Globe, 
the paper of Blair and Rives, "a, vulgar newspaper." 
The Intelligencer standing for Mr. Gales had, as often 
repeated, dignity, however by that it is not to be inferred 
it had even a touch of pusillanimity. Mr. Gales did 
not wait for the other cheek to be smitten; he took it 
his turn to smite. He did not revive slights and he in 
his good nature let time make limitation. And this 
was true in the offending incident of The Globe. 

Mr. Gales was a large man with strong features. 18 
He was not a handsome man. Mrs. Royall's printed 
statement that he was the handsomest man in the 
city quoted at her trial was received as real funny. 
He must have had pleasant expression. With one 
so full of kindness it must shine through the windows 
of the soul. 

Though not in parallel with Sir Walter yet of him 

18 Mr. Gales was five feet five inches in height; broad and rugged 
features." — Samuel H. Walker. 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 137 

Mr. Gales has suggestion. The fame of Sir Walter 
Scott will have the eternal existence of the English. 
Joseph Gales in his adopted country fairly should 
have recognition as "the preeminent editor." 

Sir Walter Scott and Joseph Gales were born in 
Great Britain. Both lived to three score with good 
measure. Both swerved from the form of worship of 
their parents to the same form. Both were incessant 
with the pen and for principle; Sir Walter in fancy and 
fiction; Mr. Gales in fact. Both resigned the rush of 
the city for the peaceful pleasures of country life, they 

"lov'd the rural walk through lanes 
Of grassy sward, close cropped by nibbling sheep." 

— Cowper. 

The writer asked his daughter — what can be said of 

dogs. "If you are to write of the dog's good qualities, 

you will never stop writing." He will not begin. 

Of their intelligence, fidelity and companionship Sir 

Walter and Mr. Gales, themselves, both availed. At 

Abbotsford, Sir Walter had an inscribed monument to 

his favorite — 
v 

"Sleep soundly, Maida, at your master's door." 

With Sir Walter he was tired of portrait painters; 
"old Maida, who had been so often sketched that he 
got up and walked off with signs of loathing whenever he 
saw an artist unfurl his paper, and handle his brushes." 
The portraits of Sir Walter's two daughters, each 
have a dog — one a thoughtful collie, the other a romping 
terrier. 

"Let cavillers deny 
That brutes have reason." — Somerville. 

Sir Walter and Mr. Gales were not cavillers. Sir 
Walter argued that his terrier had a smattering of the 
language. Mr. Gales' great dog was his trusted man 
to carry the mail and the manuscript while he was 



138 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

wheeled in the invalid chair. And in the final period 
Sir Walter was wheeled too ; and, at the last in farewell, 
his dogs " began to fawn upon him and lick his hands, 
and he alternately sobbed and smiled over them." 
The Evening Star, July 28, 1860: 

"This morning the point of most interest in the view from 
the car window was Eckington, the late residence of Mr. 
Gales, deceased, not only on account of its own beauties of 
location and embellishment, both by nature and art, but from 
the thousand reminiscences concerning the career of Mr 
Gales in Washington, which passing Eckington brought to 
mind. His good taste made a paradise there out of originally 
very rough materials indeed — out of what most persons 
would pronounce a very unpromising ground work for such 
an undertaking. His success in reducing the mildness of 
nature there to systematic beauty, was but typical of his 
success as a philosophical thinker (writer) upon the rough, 
and at times incongruous elements of the history of our whole 
country's progress. How often has his pen calmed the sec- 
tional strain, or reduced chaos in the Capitol to order, folly 
to common sense, angry words to words of fraternal kind- 
ness, he only knows who knows the details of the country's 
political history. He always saw things in a kind and genial 
light, not only in politics, but in all affairs of life. Thus he 
sought to build up rather than pull down, having a kind word 
for the interests of any and all. In the course of his more 
than fifty years connection with the press here, I do not believe 
he ever penned a line in individual anger or spite, though no 
man was more high spirited than he; which may not be said, 
I presume, of any other of his profession anywhere. 

"The lawn,s, groves and avenues of Eckington are not more 
graceful than was the mind of Mr. Gales; carefully cultivated 
as that was and producing when in its vigor, richer and riper 
fruit than the mind of any professional contemporary. He 
was for half a century the only intensely laborious editor of 
an American daily paper who always wrote with the elegance 
characterizing the articles of the leading English magazines, 
which form the school of modern English belles letters. . . .• 

"W. D. Wallach." 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 139 

Alexander K. McClure, " Random Recollections of 
Half a Century," The Washington Post, July 28, 1901: 

"The history of the great editors of the olden time from the 
organization of the government until a half century ago would 
be practically a history of American journalism during that 
period. Newspapers were a luxury, were few in number, 
limited in circulation, and their importance and influence 
depended wholly upon the individuality of the editor. Leav- 
ing out Franklin, whose greatest distinction was in other lines, 
although rather an audacious pioneer in American journalism, 
the one name that stands out with the clearest prominence 
as the examplar of the best journalism during the first half 
of the last century is that of Joseph Gales, who for more 
than fifty years was connected with the National Intelligencer 
and soon gave it the high national character that it main- 
tained until its death. 

"I met Joseph Gales many times, but only in a casual way, 
and have no claim to intimate acquaintance with him, but 
as I had read the weekly National Intelligencer with the aid 
of a tallow dip when an apprentice, and highly enjoyed its 
great editorials, unsurpassed in purity and diction and forceful 
expression, I was always interested in the man, and was 
specially gratified on my later rare visits to Washington of 
those days to get even a glimpse of the great American editor. 
He was a most accomplished gentleman of the old school, 
always courteous and delightfully genial in the circle of his 
home and intimate friends. He possessed a commanding 
personality, and the strongly marked intellectuality of his 
features, with his perfect grace of manner attracted all who 
came within the range of his movements. 

"Mr. Gales became connected with the National Intelli- 
gencer during the last term of the Jefferson administration, 
and from that time until the advent of Jackson in 1829, 
the Intelligencer, under his direction, was what might be called 
the organ of the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, Mon- 
roe, and John Quincy Adams. It was not an organ in the 
sense in which the term is generally accepted now. The 



140 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

government had no favors which it was compelled to seek. 
It commanded the limited patronage of the government solely 
by reason of its exceptionally strong position as a Washington 
and national public journal, and while it rarely had occasion 
to criticize the public policy of those administrations, it often 
took the lead in clearing the political pathway when grave 
problems were presented to the government. 

"The editorials of the Intellingencer before and during the 
war of 1812 were regarded as ranking with the teachings of 
Clay in the House and Crawford in the Senate, who were 
the recognized oracles of the war sentiment of the country. 
In the meantime the Intelligencer had grown to be a widely 
circulated daily for that period, with semi- weekly and weekly 
editions which reached every State in the Union. It was the 
most delectable of all the great papers ever published in this 
country. It had all the dignity of the London Times, tem- 
pered and embellished with a degree of vigor and progress 
which made it quite as highly respected in the New World 
as was the London Times in the Old World. There was no 
telegraphs or telephones, and most of the time no railways to 
crowd news into the editorials sanctum, and beyond the edi- 
torials of the leading newspapers the chief labor of such a 
journal was the intelligent use of scissors and paste. The 
paper was most studiously edited from the first to the last 
column, and its news and selections were given in the most 
inviting form. I have often seen the Daily National Intelli- 
gencer, when Gales was in the zenith of his greatness, issued 
with less than half a column of editorial matter. Editorials 
were not then regarded as a daily necessity, but when occasion 
demanded elaborate discussion of any public question a 
leader would appear in the Intelligencer filling two or three 
columns, and sometimes even a full page. They were essays 
rather than editorial leaders, and as polished as if they came 
from the pen of a Macaulay. The idea of anything even 
approaching sensationalism in presenting the news was never 
for a moment entertained and thus for more than half a 
century the National Intelligencer, under the direction of 
Joseph Gales, pursued the even dignified tenor of its way. 

"When Jackson came into power in 1829, bringing with 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 141 

him a horde of political expectants that swarmed upon Wash- 
ington in search of spoils, Mr. Gales had his first lesson in 
political antagonism, and he proved to be one of the most effec- 
tive of all of the assailants of Jackson that culminated in the 
overthrow of VanBuren in 1840. The criticisms of Jackson's 
policy were as fearless and able as they were dignified, and 
they searchingly exposed the political faults of the adminis- 
tration while sustaining it in great trials when Jackson was 
right such as was presented in the South Carolina nullification 
episode. Mr. Gales was heartily for the majesty of the 
national authority, but he profoundly and incisively deplored 
the new political policy that came with Jackson openly pro- 
claiming that to the victors belongs the spoils. 

"Until Jackson became President everything relating to 
the government was conducted on the highest plane of con- 
ventionality, and the inauguration of Jackson's methods, 
illustrated at times by the President smoking a corncob 
pipe while informally receiving visitors and officials in the 
White House, was a rude shock alike to the social and political 
methods which had so uniformly prevailed in Washington. 
The first of all the humorous and satirical political writers 
to attain fame was the author of the Jack Downing (Seba 
Smith) letters in the National Intelligencer. They were 
relatively quite as widely read and commented on at that time 
as were the letters of Petroleum V. Nasby during the war 
and reconstruction periods. The fact that these letters 
appeared in the most dignified and respected journal of the 
country was conclusive evidence that they exhibited the 
highest type of the satirist, and it is known that the keen 
invective of Jack Downing was a more irritating thorn in the 
side of Jackson and his political followers than were the assaults 
of any of the able journals of the country which were then in 
opposition. 

"Of course, the high and successful standard of journalism 
established by Joseph Gales would fall far short of the require- 
ments of journalism of the present age; but it is only just to 
say that for a period of half a century he conducted a public 
journal of national reputation and maintained a pre-eminent 
position in American journalism even when brought into 



142 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

competition with the pioneers of progressive newspapers 
issued by Greeley and Bennett. The old-time journalism 
required little energy in gathering all the news; the most 
successful journals of early times became so largely because of 
their ability and dignified conservations. There were many 
violent partisan newspapers in those days which assailed 
opposing parties and candidates with a measure of defamation 
that would not be tolerated in the present age, but it is credit- 
able to the integrity of the older time that the National 
Intelligencer, which represented the absolute mastery of 
dignity and conservation in journalism was the most respected 
and potent of the great newspapers of that period. 

"Mr. Gales followed the policy of Webster as proclaimed in 
his great speech in reply to Hayne, and supported Harrison, 
Clay, Taylor and Scott as Whig candidates for the Presidency 
He ardently approved and defended the compromise measures 
in 1850 which wrecked the Whig party, and in 1856, when 
the great sectional issue became paramount, he had refuge 
under the banner of Fillmore, whose administration he had 
earnestly commended. It was evident, however, that the 
power of this great newspaper and its great editor was sadly 
enfeebled, as it stood on the narrow middle ground between 
the fiercely contending parties organized on sectional lines. 
The leaders of the slave interests had gone far beyond the 
bounds of conservatism, and their devotion to the Union 
was secondary to their devotion to slavery, while the Republi- 
cans of the North, inflamed by the aggressive exactions of 
the slave power, offered no field for the conservative and 
always patriotic appeals of Joseph Gales. 

"The great issue that absorbed the nation had passed beyond 
conservative restraint, and the National Intelligencer, at 
whose utterances in former times the leaders of all parties 
took pause, languished in patronage, in influence and in every 
attribute of successful journalism, save the dignity and 
elegance which always embellished its columns. Fortunately 
in the midsummer of 1860, when the always able and earnest 
but almost unnoted appeals for the preservation of the Union 
by the election of John Bell were well maintained, Joseph 
Gales was called to the dreamless couch of the dead. His 



Clark: Joseph Gales, Junior. 143 

great work was done and he was gathered to his fathers before 
he could witness lingering death of the great national news- 
paper to which he had devoted his life, and by which he 
made American journalism honored at home and abroad." 

"But mightiest of the mighty means, 
On which the arm of progress leans, 
Man's noblest mission to advance, 
His woes assuage, his weal enhance, 
His rights enforce, his wrongs redress, — 
Mightiest Of Mighty Is The Press." 

. — Sir John Barring 

The English poet had in the Intelligencer an examplar 
of his sentiment. The Intelligencer is the testament of 
the local historians. No one writes local history but 
resorts to its file. And what is found is to the aforesaid 
equal to gospel truth. From the beginning to its end it 
pursued a course without much modernization. The 
Intelligencer did not as the rising newspapers print all 
the news. Francis A. Richardson, the correspondent, 
says that Mr. Gales on a morning in 1860, being asked 
the news, replied, "I don't know, I have not yet read 
the Baltimore Sun." The Intelligencer had no social 
page, and in consequence, did not tell who gave a dinner 
and the host's boasted guests; it did not mention the 
social affair and what the ladies had on. What it 
considered minor matters were not magnified by notice. 

George Alfred Townsend says: 

"It was in its best days, cold-hearted, didactic, rather a 
'bore,' except to a reverent man, a sort of Sunday-school 
journal for grown-up sinners. . . . But it had the longest 
existence of any merely national journal. This grave old 
affectation of a newspaper used to say not one word for 
perhaps a week after the issuing of a President's message. 
Then it would appear with a didactic broadside of comment, 
which would be meet for Whig journals all over the country." 

That the Intelligencer was not up-to-date in sensation 
can be decided by the poet's standard: 



144 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

"Turn to the press — its teeming sheets survey, 
Big with the wonders of each passing day; 
Births, deaths, and weddings, forgeries, fires and wrecks, 
Harangues and hail-storms, brawls and broken necks, 
Where half-fledg'd bards, on feeble pinions seek 
An immortality of near a week; 
When cruel eulogists the dead restore, 
In maudlin praise to martyr them once more; 
Where ruffian slanderers wreck their coward spite, 
And need no venom'd dagger while they write; 
While hard to tell, so coarse a daub he lays, 
Which sullies most — the slander or the praise." . 

— Charles Sprague. 

Dr. James C. Welling became Mr. Seaton's editorial 
Associate. Mr. Seaton pronounced his valedictory 
December 31. 1864. To the proprietorship Chauncey 
H. Snow and John F. Coyle succeeded in 1865 and upon 
the succession the publication office was removed to 
the Polkinhorn Building. 

The publication under Snow, Coyle and Co., sus- 
pended June 24, 1869. It was revived by Alexander 
Delmar, editor and proprietor, Septempter 20, that year, 
with an expansion of title. It was published daily 
except Sunday, on the south side of Pennsylvania 
Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets, old numbering 
295. The Star welcomed the revivement with a compli- 
ment and a suggestion. The pleasure of the compliment 
was lost in the offense of the suggestion. 

" ' The Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express, 
the new Democratic morning paper, made its first appearance 
this morning, looking as bright and neat as a new pin; but 
might not the head be reduced just a little?' — Star. 

Editor Delmar replied : 

"Perhaps it might. But then you know — 

" 'Big heads and little wit, 
Little heads and not a bit.' " 

The finis of the Intelligencer was January 10, 1870. 



Remarks of Washington Topham. 145 

Its days were seventy years. "When seventy years 
are accomplished," scripturally is accomplished a perfect 
period. 

At a public meeting held in the City Hall, August 17, 
1860, initiatory steps were taken towards the erection 
of a monument. Gen. Roger C. Weightman was the 
chairman. Committees for the wards were appointed 
to receive subscriptions. The Civil War intervened 
and absorbed attention. The shaft in the Congres- 
sional Cemetery with the record of birth and death has 
on it chiselled: 

In Memory of 

Joseph Gales 

For More than Half a Century 

The Leading Editor of 

The National Intelligencer 

A Journalist 

Of the Highest Integrity 

Ability, and Accomplishments, 

This Monument is Erected 
By Representatives of the 

American Press 

In Philadelphia, New York 

and Boston. 



REMARKS OF WASHINGTON TOPHAM. 
In my remarks following the reading of President 
Clark's paper, "Joseph Gales. — A Former Mayor of 
Washington," I stated that this subject was of unusual 
interest to me as the neighborhood of the home of Mr. 
Gales, corner of Ninth and E Streets, and the office of the 
National Intelligencer were the scenes of my earliest recol- 
lections and activities. My grandfather Enoch White, 
father of the late Geo. H. B. White, was a foreman 
of the composing room of the National Intelligencer 



146 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

and highly esteemed by both Mr. Gale and Mr. Seaton. 
While in the service of the Intelligencer he lived across 
the street about where Odd Fellows Hall was afterward 
built, and there in 1829 my mother was born. 

Opposite Mr. Gales' home on Ninth Street, above E, 
my grandfather, with James A. Kennedy, William W. 
Billing and a few others, founded and built the Ninth 
Street Methodist Protestant Church in 1833, the 
walls of which are yet standing, so like Mr. Davis, 
this old neighborhood was not only the scene of my 
earliest and happiest recollections, but that of my 
mother and grandfather as well. 



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